'Congress can‘t do anything': Top GOP senator says he has no power to stop Musk and DOGE

18 February

One of the longest tenured members of the U.S. Senate is now suggesting Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is more powerful than all of Congress.

According to a Tuesday report in Politico, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, said that Musk and his "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE (which Congress has not yet made an official federal agency) is free to make sweeping changes to how federal money is spent and that the legislative branch has no ability to interfere.

"Congress can’t do anything except complain about it," Grassley told RadioIowa, arguing that DOGE's actions fall under the umbrella of the executive branch.

"This is an executive branch decision that, who works for the executive branch is determined by the president of the United States,” the Iowa Republican continued. “The Constitution says all executive power of the federal government shall be vested, and that’s the word that’s used, vested in the office of the presidency.”

While Grassley is correct in that Article II of the U.S. Constitution designates certain powers to the executive branch, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution explicitly grants the power of the purse to Congress. Specifically, the nation's founding documents grants the legislative branch the "Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States."

Despite arguing that he couldn't stop DOGE's budget cuts and the administration's mass firings of federal workers, the Judiciary Committee chairman offered his sympathies for longtime federal employees who lost their jobs. He called it "a tragedy for people that are getting laid off."

"Going out looking for a job after having a job for 10 years is not an easy thing to do," Grassley told RadioIowa.

Click here to read Politico's full report,, and click here to read Grassley's comments to RadioIowa.

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