U.S. Rep. McCollum: The White House Needs to Tell Congress what Elon Musk and his Team are Doing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04) joined over 150 of her Democratic colleagues in a letter (see attachment) to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers about the alarming access to payment systems reportedly given to Elon Musk. Later Thursday, Congresswoman McCollum released the following statement:

 “The access to executive branch agencies that President Trump has bestowed on Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency is completely unprecedented and does not comply with the legal framework expected of the federal government. This has apparently included demanding access to highly confidential government data systems. No private citizen or government employee has ever had the type of broad access to Americans’ personal data the way Mr. Musk and his team obtained last weekend and continue to maintain access to.

“To be clear, Elon Musk is a private citizen with multiple government contracts and strong business ties to the government of the People’s Republic of China. This leads to a clear conflict of interest. Allowing Mr. Musk and his team to access records on his competitors’ government contracts, and the personal data of American citizens, presents a clear national security threat to our country. That is why Democrats in Congress are demanding answers about the level of access that Mr. Musk has, what he has done with the information he has collected, who was involved in accessing government data systems, and where the data is being stored. The White House must respond to them.”

 “I will continue to demand answers to these questions from the Trump administration as Democrats in Congress work to protect the private data of the American people and understand precisely what data Mr. Musk and his team have had access to and what they have done with it.”

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