WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Democrats in Congress are fighting mad about Elon Musk\u2019s email to federal workers asking them to name five things they accomplished in a week, with one representative saying the DOGE chief\u2019s demands are \u2018illegal\u2019 and another claiming Musk \u2018has no idea what he\u2019s doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only controversial because it\u2019s against the law, and we\u2019re a country of laws, so you just have to follow the law,\u2019 said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-MA, told Fox News Digital. \u2018The bottom line is Elon Musk and Trump don\u2019t seem to care about following the law, as you and I are expected to follow.\u2019<\/p>\n
At Musk\u2019s direction, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email titled, \u2018What did you do last week?\u2019 to federal employees. The message called on workers to submit five accomplishments over the past week or face possible termination.<\/p>\n
In response, several federal agency leaders, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, advised employees that compliance with the email was not necessary.<\/p>\n
For many, the email represented what they believe to be the new administration\u2019s disregard for the law and the value of federal workers.<\/p>\n
This week, the American Federation of Federal Workers and several other groups launched a lawsuit against the OPM, arguing that the office cannot fire workers who do not comply with the email\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital spoke with Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate to ask why the email ended up being so controversial.<\/p>\n
Who is Elon Musk to be sending out something like that?\u2019 said Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-IL.<\/p>\n
\u2018Someone who hasn\u2019t been vetted or who hasn\u2019t come before Congress trying to intimidate people into doing things they don\u2019t want to do. It\u2019s illegal. It\u2019s probably unconstitutional,\u2019 he went on. \u2018And that\u2019s why workers are pushing back.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rep. Becca Balint, D-VT, said that in her view, \u2018it\u2019s clear that Elon Musk has no idea what he\u2019s doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He has no idea, he\u2019s incompetent,\u2019 Balint said. \u2018He sends out emails that contradict each other, sometimes within a 24-hour period. He sends out information that contradicts the people that Trump has appointed to be Cabinet secretaries. So, I think the sort of this mystique around him as being some kind of a genius is very quickly being shown to be actually just an illusion.\u2019<\/p>\n
Musk called the email a \u2018pulse check\u2019 to see if any supposed government employees were fraudulently collecting paychecks without actually working. President Donald Trump backed the message, saying it was \u2018great\u2019 and that if you don\u2019t answer the email \u2018you\u2019re fired.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, said the consequences of Musk and DOGE firing anyone who does not reply to email would be significant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The havoc that it would wreak on people to not answer an email and have that constitute termination is extreme for Americans across this country,\u2019 she told Fox News Digital. \u2018If people can\u2019t control air traffic in the skies, it makes Americans unsafe. If veterans don\u2019t have staff to actually give them benefits, and federal workers are fired in our National Parks, and Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security means average Americans are not going to get their checks.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018This is not a software company that you can blow up and nobody notices,\u2019 she went on. \u2018This is the federal government that provides critical benefits to American people everywhere.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Offering a slightly different take, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, said that the email was an example of \u2018cancel culture,\u2019 and that Musk\u2019s goal was to \u2018have federal employees who are professionals be replaced by loyal minions who won\u2019t serve the people.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018His email was all about the cancel culture, canceling professionals in the government, delivering good services, and replacing them with loyalists who have no interest in sustaining the vision of our \u2018We the People\u2019 democracy,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Republicans, meanwhile, stood firmly behind DOGE and said Musk\u2019s email was a perfectly reasonable request.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think we should be very, very thankful for what Musk is doing,\u2019 Rep. Brandon Gill, R-TX, told Fox News Digital. \u2018We\u2019ve got the most entrenched bureaucracy in all of world history, and if we\u2019re actually going to fight back against waste, fraud and abuse, you\u2019ve got to do things a little bit differently.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Asking federal employees a simple question of, \u2018What did you do today? What did you accomplish this past week?\u2019 I think it\u2019s about as basic as it gets,\u2019 he went on. \u2018I\u2019m thrilled that he\u2019s doing it. I think that every single employee who didn\u2019t respond to him the first time should be fired, but they\u2019re being gracious and giving them a second chance.\u2019<\/p>\n
Bottom line is everybody who works for the government ought to be responsive,\u2019 said Rep. Chip Roy, R-TX.<\/p>\n
I understand why it\u2019s disruptive if it\u2019s not the way things have been done,\u2019 he added. \u2018But it\u2019s the president who calls the shots, and the president yesterday reiterated that he thought it was important for the people who work for him, who work up through the government to the president to respond to what they\u2019re doing.\u2019<\/p>\n
Roy noted that he believed Musk was \u2018doing a great job with DOGE,\u2019 and that the average American understands the email, \u2018because they certainly have to answer for what they\u2019re doing in their real job.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The president has the ability and the determination to decide whether people are upholding their job and doing the work that they\u2019re supposed to do and they\u2019re hired to do,\u2019 he explained. \u2018It\u2019s kind of sending a shock to the system because it\u2019s forcing people to do what they should be doing all the way down the branches of government.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House\u2019s DOGE spokesperson but did not receive comment.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a recent press conference that \u2018DOGE is fulfilling President Trump\u2019s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient, and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer\u2019s hard-earned dollars.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities,\u2019 she said. \u2018The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change. While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary and aligns with the mandate supported by more than 77 million American voters.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Democrats in Congress are fighting mad about Elon Musk\u2019s email to federal workers asking them to name five things they accomplished in a week, with one representative saying the DOGE chief\u2019s demands are \u2018illegal\u2019 and another claiming Musk \u2018has no idea what he\u2019s doing.\u2019 It\u2019s only controversial because it\u2019s against the law, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":36883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quickassetsmarket.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}