California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has claimed that Donald Trump’s proposal to create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is both “unconstitutional and illegal.”
In an appearance on CNN’s Newsroom with Jim Acosta, Lofgren argued that only Congress has the right to make cuts to the federal government.
The exchange went as follows:
ACOSTA: I want to ask you about something that is coming into your wheelhouse. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy apparently will be up on Capitol Hill talking about their ideas for this thing that they’re calling DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is a bit of a misnomer because it won’t be a part of the federal government, apparently but Congress controls the purse strings.
What are your thoughts on Elon Musk and Ramaswamy deciding or trying to decide what stays and what goes in the federal government?
LOFGREN: Well, it’s illegal. You know they haven’t asked to meet with me, but the impoundment of funds that have been appropriated by the Congress is unconstitutional and illegal.
There is no such Department of Government Efficiency it’s made up. So good luck to them. I mean if there is a plan that President Trump wants to propose to the Congress he should send it to us.
But the Constitution does not permit the president to simply avoid what the Congress has done, that that power of the purse is with the legislative branch, not the president.
Watch the clip below:
Announcing the department’s creation following his incredible election victory last month, Trump said that its task will be to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Trump added that the department will be headed up by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with a view to making hundreds of billions or even trillions in savings and rolling the deep state workers who sought to undermine during his previous administration.
“To drive this kind of drastic change, The Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” Trump explained at the time.
Lofgren, meanwhile, is known for her bizarre claims and suggestions.
Back in July, she suggested that a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court giving Trump immunity from prosecution meant that Joe Biden had the right to assassinate the court’s conservative justices and not face any consequences.
“I guess, you know, theoretically, President Biden, acting within the scope of his official duties, could dispatch the military to take out the conservative justices on the Court, and he’d be immune,” she said at the time.
