Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and More than 100 of his Colleagues Condemn Elon Musk Takeovers, Call on Federal Agencies to Regain Order
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D‑IL), Congressman Gerald Connolly (D‑VA), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and more than 100 other House Democrats sent a letter to the heads of 24 federal agencies demanding that they clarify that employees do not have to respond to Elon Musk’s reckless and half-baked email and that nonresponses do not count as a resignation. In the letter, the Members note that leaders of several agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of State, have already clarified that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Elon Musk have no authority to issue such threats to employees.
“The OPM email and Mr. Musk’s social media post unleashed chaos throughout the federal government leaving millions of public servants unclear how to respond and agency leaders scrambling to determine how to proceed. Various federal agencies, including the Department of State and National Security Agency, have already appropriately informed federal employees not to respond to the email. Even Kash Patel, the Administration’s new Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation clarified that OPM and Mr. Musk do not control agency staff, including in a message sent to FBI employees that, ‘the FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,’” wrote the Members.
The Members cited the opaque and likely unlawful nature of Musk’s employment, and highlighted his clear lack of basic understanding of the federal workforce:
“Neither Musk’s tweet nor the email account for the fact that many federal workers will not be receiving this email in time to respond by the deadline as they may be away from their secure workstation, on medical leave, or away from their email for completely justifiable reasons. He also, disturbingly, appears to be unaware that many federal employees are locked out of their systems due to DOGE’s ongoing intrusion into federal information technology infrastructure. Finally, neither Musk nor OPM has explained to the public how OPM and the agencies would even review and process potentially two million responses from across the government—which are duplicative of existing performance management procedures—without diverting resources and costing the American people money and services.”
On February 20, 2025, Committee Democrats launched an investigation into Musk’s role in the Trump Administration after a White House official stated, under oath, that Musk was not a part of DOGE.
The Members concluded, “To this day, despite repeated inquiries from Congress, we do not know Mr. Musk’s official status in government, we do not know what his financial conflicts of interest may be, and we do not know what—if any—control President Trump actually has over his actions. The capricious dismissal threatened in Mr. Musk’s post would be illegal and cannot be tolerated. We urge you to immediately inform federal workers at your agency that his missives do not constitute official orders and that federal employees should not interrupt their service to the public to respond to OPM’s mass email. You must also make clear that Mr. Musk’s threat of dismissal due to nonresponse to OPM’s email is invalid.”
Click here to read the letter to the heads of the 24 Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act federal agencies.