Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. I'm your host, Will Walden, and if you're new here, this is a show all about Elon Musk. It is groundbreaking work that he's doing with his various companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neurolink, and of course, X. And before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share a quick insight from our shows analytics. It turns out the 45% of you listening right now are subscribed to the show and thank you for that.
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for the show. Be able to convince them that it's in their interest to do so. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Landau, I deeply appreciate your service to this country and your willingness to come before
this committee. But I'll be honest with you, I find it pretty offensive that you are trying to maintain that there is some good faith review happening at USAID when the representatives of the administration in charge of cost cutting have made it clear that the goal is to destroy USAID. Do you know what percentage of USAID employees have been fired or furloughed? Senator, I I do not, I, I'm here as a private citizen of a nominee, so I am not part of the administration at this. Point.
So you don't have, you have a ballpark guess you're, you're, you're, you're, you're about to help lead America's diplomatic efforts. A ballpark guess as to how many USAID employees have been fired or furloughed. Again, Senator, I've just looked at the at the way the the President has set this forth that he has put instituted a 90 day review. Period. You haven't read reports that you might be able to cite today.
Well, I I've seen some reports again in the press, but I got, I want to be very careful before I start acting as if I know what is going on behind the scenes. But I'm not part of the administration yet. Obviously if I'm confirmed, you can call me before me for oversight before you excuse me for oversight. Here's the so the so the number is 94 percent, 94% of USAID staff have been fired or essentially permanently furloughed.
And you stated to us that you believe this is a good faith 90 day review and yet you actually don't know how many people have been fired or furloughed. How can you come to the conclusion that this is a good faith review when you actually don't know the extent of the terminations? Wouldn't it be relevant as to the question as whether it was a good faith review if 94% of the agency had already been
terminated? Well, Senator, again, I, I don't, I, I think it's important to recognize what are the programs and how are these people that are being fired? With the conclusion that this is a good faith review if you don't even know what's happening. Well, I guess, Senator. You can't have it both ways. You can't come to the committee and say I know this is a good faith review, but I don't know anything that's happening because I'm not in the
administration. Well, Senator, again, I assume the government, there's a presumption of governmental regularity that exists generally in the law. You know, I, you know, believe strongly that the president, you know, wants to comply with the law, wants to make sure that we are doing the American taxpayers bidding by looking carefully at these programs and, and making sure that we separate the baby from the. Bath wall. I just don't think you can have it both ways.
I don't think you can come here and tell us that you know that this is a good faith review, but assert that you don't have any basic information about what's happening. Mr. Regus, which article? Excuse me, which branch of government has the power to decide how taxpayer money is spent? Is it the legislative branch? The executive branch to the judicial branch? Thank you for the question, Senator, My question. I don't need an explanation which.
Well, Congress has the power of the purse, the executive has the power to make sure the laws are faithfully implemented, and the courts arbitrate disputes between those two branches. So if Congress is authorized a agency or a department and has appropriated the money with the caveat that the money shall be spent, does the administration have the obligation to spend that money in accordance with how Congress has appropriated
the the dollars? Senator, I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is the executive has a role in how those monies are spent. So to the extent that the. So maybe so I don't, I don't so that that seems like a pretty, I mean, and I think Republicans and Democrats on this committee should care about the answer to this question.
That's a pretty easy one. If Congress has authorized a function, an agency or department and has appropriated dollars with the word shall, do you believe the executive branch can decide not to spend those dollars? Well, I'm familiar with like mandatory entitlement programs which has that language and those those are on autopilot, so. It's not a mandatory, It's not a mandatory, It's not an entitlement program. Congress is established. Let me give you an example.
The National Endowment for Democracy is established by law. We appropriate every year, and we say that the dollars appropriate in this case, $315 million shall be spent. You're going to oversee spending at the Department of State. Do you believe that the executive branch could choose not to spend dollars that are appropriated by Congress with a shall rather than I may? I don't think so, but I'm not the ultimate arbiter of that question. And how the money? The arbiter of that question?
You're actually being nominated for the job that would decide how those dollars are spent. If if I think we're the the question at hand here is how is the money on what things is the money being spent not? Whether how that money is spent and you're supposed to execute it. If we say $315 million is to be spent at the National Endowment for Democracy, do you believe that you have the ability to to deny that money to be spent on the functions that Congress
appropriates? This is a really important question. I don't think so, but I also think what? That thinks so. So what is that? You don't think so? So yes or no? I think if that's what the law says and that's what needs to happen, OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Daines. Chairman, thank you. Thanks for coming before the committee today. Mr. Whitaker, I want to start with some questions for you. We had a great meeting and I thank you for stopping by my own.
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