EDITOR:

Congressman Jack Bergman has railed against the alleged overreach of unelected bureaucrats and the need to rein them in. Those pesky bureaucrats, always trying to administer laws passed by Congress, the same legislative body to which Rep. Bergman belongs. Mr. Bergman has also stressed the importance of congressional oversight of executive actions. As chair of the House Budget Committee’s Oversight Task Force, Mr. Bergman co-authored a letter in June 2024 to the Congressional Budget Office requesting a “fulsome cost estimate” of the 138 executive actions taken by President Biden over the first three years and five months of his administration. Presumably he will be urging the House Budget Committee to request the same information from President Trump for his 50-plus executive actions in just his first two weeks in office.

Elon Musk has not been elected to any office, does not have the consent of Congress, and has not expressed any particular loyalty to the United States. Rather, he has effectively bought his way into the White House. Without any congressional oversight or constraints, he is probing his tentacles into every nook and cranny of the federal government. He is accessing sensitive information about the functions of federal agencies, payment systems, federal employee records, contractors, partners and who knows what else since neither he nor the Trump Administration is telling us. This includes information that he and selective others may benefit from personally. These actions are disrupting the functions of federal agencies that provide services on which we all depend, including for our health, safety, and security.

So, Congressman Bergman, when are we going to hear ideas on how the Republican-controlled Congress is going to exert its oversight powers and rein-in this unelected oligarch?

The Democratic House leadership has instructed its members to hold townhall meetings in their districts. Given the chaos and dysfunction coming out of the White House, that sounds like a good idea. At a townhall meeting Mr. Bergman could reassure us that things actually are going well in Washington and that dismantling federal agencies, including the national security apparatus, will “make America great again.”

Ernie and Kathi Houghton

Gladstone