Walkinshaw, Ranking Member Thompson Demand Elon Musk Testify Under Oath After GAO Finds DOGE-Driven DHS Savings Claims Vastly Overstated

Washington, D.C. – Congressman James R. Walkinshaw (VA-11), the only Democrat serving on both the House Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform Committees and Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement. “The numbers from a new Government Accountability Office report are in, and they further expose Elon Musk’s DOGE project as an utter fraud. Trump’s DHS claimed $10.5 billion in savings, but GAO found that the savings were significantly overstated as 95% of those claimed savings come from IT service contracts that the Department has and will continue to have to pay for through other government contracts. Elon Musk and DOGE tried to sell the American people a lie: that firing federal workers and gutting public services would make government more efficient and save taxpayers billions. Instead, they inflicted lasting damage, indiscriminately cancelled contracts, and fired essential personnel. Meanwhile, 99% of the savings they claimed with DHS have not materialized. Chairman Andrew Garbarino cannot allow Musk and DOGE leadership to avoid accountability for this enormous gap between GAO’s findings and DHS’s claimed savings. Chairman Garbarino must immediately convene a public Homeland Security Committee hearing requiring DHS leadership such as the Deputy Secretary, Musk, and other senior DOGE staff to testify under oath about who approved these estimates, what the contract terminations cost taxpayers, and to what extent they damaged critical missions. GAO personnel who conducted the investigation should also participate to ensure we receive credible information about DOGE’s actions at DHS. Given Musk’s public admission that DOGE was unsuccessful, he and his DOGE cronies should be subject to a full accounting of the damage they caused. Congress must then enact permanent safeguards so no President can ever again give an unaccountable political operation free rein to devastate our federal government.” ###