Murray: “The richest man in the world is taking over the Treasury in the name of fighting corruption? The irony is almost as rich as Musk himself.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is helping lead Senate Democrats in holding the Senate floor for a full 30 hours ahead of a final confirmation vote on Russell Vought to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
As Senator Murray delivered an hour-long floor speech on the Senate floor, she also specifically discussed how Elon Musk, like Vought, is working to illegal block funds and cut programs families rely on—including by gaining alarming access to sensitive financial systems:
“This is not Silicon Valley—where you can just ‘move fast and break things.’ When you break things here—people don’t get health care, people don’t get Social Security checks, people don’t get crucial warnings and lifesaving information.
“And anyone who thinks—’well, that surely won’t happen’—has not been paying attention. Because just this week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump put Americans in danger.
“We have citizens in dangerous corners of the world who were suddenly locked out of their emails and cut off from an app that is meant to help address threats like kidnapping—so no one should be shrugging this off and just saying ‘well what’s the worst that could happen.’ Because this can get really, really bad really, really fast.
“And if anyone is thinking ‘well it’s okay, we have guardrails, we have laws’—make no mistake, even though Trump and Musk have absolutely zero legal authority to hold up any federal payments that are law, that has not stopped them so far.
“As we’ve seen—they are already halting other funds illegally, they are already firing government watchdogs and officials left and right, regardless of our laws. They are already putting forward blatantly unconstitutional executive orders.
“The fact of the matter is—Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they think applies to them. They think because they are rich and powerful, they get to call all the shots—regardless of the courts and Congress. But that’s just not how things work in this country. Billionaires are not above the law. Neither are Presidents.”
The full text of Senator Murray’s remarks on Elon Musk can be found below, and video can be found HERE.
“And, M. President, I know we are discussing the Vought nomination now, but I want to talk about someone who has not been nominated to anything, he’s not been elected to anything, and yet he is serving as de facto Co-President—Elon Musk. Arguably he is more important and more influential than the elected sitting President. And he has proven himself in lock-step with Russ Vought, who we are voting on tomorrow, when it comes to slashing programs that matter to American families and ignoring the laws of our nation.
“In recent days, Musk has been busy illegally shuttering USAID and cutting off foreign assistance programs—which, as I’ve said, will lose jobs for Americans, lose lives in countries around the world, and lose leadership as adversaries like China fill the gap.
“Shockingly, Musk has even had people fired for denying his lackeys classified resources that they had no authority to access. And last weekend, we all learned Elon Musk essentially commandeered access to the Treasury Department’s most sensitive payment system handling six trillion dollars every year and managing nearly all of our federal disbursements.
“It’s a system that contains extremely sensitive personal and commercial information and I’ve been hearing from people across my state who are truly alarmed about what Musk and his associates having access to this system could mean for their data—and for funding that they count on.
“Let’s not mince words here: an unelected, unaccountable billionaire—with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China, and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived enemies—is hijacking our nation’s most sensitive financial data system and its checkbook. So that he can illegally block funds to our constituents based on the slightest whim or wildest conspiracy. Funds—mind you—that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, passed.
“Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has ‘viewing access’ to Treasury’s highly sensitive payment system as if that’s acceptable either! But why on earth should we believe that? Particularly when Musk himself is saying the exact opposite loudly and repeatedly for everyone to hear.
“What funds will Elon target next—life saving medical research? Homelessness assistance? Food banks? We already know he is falsely attacking faith-based organizations that help folks—and promising to cut off funds based on conspiracy theories. In other words: the world’s richest man has vowed to cut off funding that helps the least among us. Think about that.
“And next—think about how many dollars he himself makes from government contracts. I mean, seriously: the richest man in the world, with countless government contracts, and ties to our adversaries is taking over the Treasury in the name of fighting corruption? The irony is almost as rich as Musk himself.
“And let me underscore, M. President, just how dangerous this is—because now that Trump has handed over Treasury’s checkbook—what if Elon decides he doesn’t like how Rivian is getting federal funds to build an EV manufacturing facility, so what next?
“All Elon has to do is say they’re ‘woke,’ and he can convince Trump to illegally cut off those funds? Is that how this works now?
“Maybe Elon will decide he doesn’t like that Blue Origin—and not SpaceX—gets a contract, so he wants to gum up the works on their payments. Is that how this works?
“Maybe Elon decides he wants to get into electronic health systems—and maybe he wants to punish hospital systems that don’t take him up on whatever he’s selling. Private corporations and competitors need to take note—the potential for abuse and corruption by Elon, especially considering his track record, is pretty much limitless.
“And it is not just Treasury—Musk and his henchman are launching a full-scale invasion of sensitive data systems across government. We are talking about the Small Business Administration. We are talking about NOAA. We are talking about Medicare. The reporting is now clear they are not just looking either—they are directly making changes to some of those critical systems.
“This is not Silicon Valley—where you can just ‘move fast and break things.’ When you break things here—people don’t get their health care, they don’t get their Social Security checks, they don’t get crucial warnings and lifesaving information.
“And anyone who thinks—’well, that surely won’t happen’—has not been paying attention. Because just this week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump put Americans in danger.
“We have citizens in dangerous corners of the world who were suddenly locked out of their emails and they were cut off from an app that is meant to help address threats like kidnapping—so no one should be shrugging this off and just saying ‘well what’s the worst that could happen.’ Because this can get really, really bad really, really fast.
“And if anyone is thinking ‘well it’s okay, we have guardrails, we have laws’—make no mistake, even though Trump and Musk have absolutely zero legal authority to hold up any federal payments that are law, this has not stopped them so far.
“As we’ve seen—they are already halting other funds illegally, they are already firing government watchdogs and officials left and right, regardless of our laws. They are already putting forward blatantly unconstitutional executive orders.
“The fact of the matter is—Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they think applies to them. They think because they are rich and powerful, they get to call all the shots—regardless of the courts, regardless of Congress. That is just not how things work in this country.
“Billionaires are not above the law. Neither are Presidents. We do not have a monarchy, where a President is king. We do not have an oligarchy, where the richest people get the largest say. We, in this country, have a democracy—if we can keep it—where each citizen has a vote. We have checks and balances—where the President is accountable to the Congress and to the people, where he has to follow the laws we pass.
“But some of my colleagues across the aisle seem to be forgetting that our democracy does not work by magic. We have to do our part, our part here to hold Presidents accountable. Our job is not to say ‘yes’ to everything the President does—no matter how lawless or harmful. Our job is not to shrug our shoulders or cover our eyes. It is to fight for the people who sent us here—and to defend the Constitution.
“So Democrats will be pushing back with the tools we have—we will speak out, we will press this administration, we will open investigations, and we will demand accountability—but one tool we do not have is a majority in Congress. So that means, M. President, our Republican colleagues have to say ‘enough.’ We need them to join us. We need them to stand up to the corruption and lawlessness and stand up for the people they represent.
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