WASHINGTON — Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., demanded that Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency exit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In a letter to acting CFPB Director Russell Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Warren and Schiff also sought to highlight the
"Mr. Musk is not only neutralizing the pro-consumer agency that will supervise X's digital wallet — he is also potentially gaining access to confidential corporate data that could provide X with an unfair advantage over its competitors," the lawmakers said.
Musk's exact role at DOGE became more nebulous after White House Office of Administration director Joshua Fisher declared in a
Musk was named as the agency's co-head in November alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who left the cost-cutting group shortly after. On Jan. 19, Trump said, "We will create the new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by a gentleman named Elon Musk." Musk has also referred to the work that DOGE has pursued, including ripping through agencies' data and purging career civil servants, as an effort that "we" have undertaken, and has repeatedly
Warren and Schiff said the White House's attempt to obfuscate Musk's relationship with DOGE belies the administration's many other statements suggesting that Musk is in fact spearheading the DOGE efforts.
"In recent days, the White House has also sought to distance Mr. Musk from DOGE's work in light of legal fights over his influence in the White House, asserting that Mr. Musk 'is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service' and that he 'has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,'" Warren and Schiff said. "The fact remains, however, that both President Trump and Mr. Musk have consistently framed the billionaire as the head of DOGE since the President took office."
In addition to Musk's ownership of X, he could also stand to benefit from the
"Notably, Mr. Musk is also the founder and CEO of Tesla, which offers customers the option of working with Tesla to finance their auto purchases," the lawmakers said. "The CFPB plays a critical role in supervising the auto lending industry and protecting consumers from corporate malfeasance and scams. Therefore, actions by Mr. Musk and DOGE at the CFPB also have the potential to directly benefit Tesla — and by extension, Mr. Musk."
While Warren has repeatedly railed against the Trump administration's dismantling of the CFPB, Schiff's cosigning of the letter signals deepening Democratic pushback to the Trump administration's efforts to drastically cut the federal workforce.
Schiff is particularly notable because of the extent to which his primary campaign in California against former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif. — a noted consumer protection hawk — benefited from a wave of cryptocurrency-related campaign spending. By signing on to the Warren letter, Schiff is moving to protect an agency that major crypto industry players — including Marc Andreessen, cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — would prefer to see permanently defunct.
