Congressman Cleaver Joins More than 100 House Democrats in Pushing Federal Agencies to Regain Order, Renounce Musk Chaos

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II, along with more than 100 other House Democrats, demanded that the heads of 24 federal agencies immediately clarify to their agencies that federal employees do not have to respond to Elon Musk’s ill-conceived, reckless email and that nonresponse does not constitute resignation. In a letter to the agency heads, the lawmakers noted that some federal agencies, including the Department of State, the National Security Agency (NSA), and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have already clarified that Mr. Musk does not have the authority to issue these threats.

“The OPM email and Mr. Musk’s social media post unleashed chaos throughout the federal government leaving millions of public servants unclear how to respond and agency leaders scrambling to determine how to proceed,” wrote the lawmakers. “Various federal agencies, including the Department of State and National Security Agency, have already appropriately informed federal employees not to respond to the email.  Even Kash Patel, the Administration’s new Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation clarified that OPM and Mr. Musk do not control agency staff, including in a message sent to FBI employees that, ‘the FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”

The Members cited the opaque and likely unlawful nature of Musk’s employment, and highlighted his clear lack of basic understanding of the federal workforce:

“Neither Musk’s tweet nor the email account for the fact that many federal workers will not be receiving this email in time to respond by the deadline as they may be away from their secure workstation, on medical leave, or away from their email for completely justifiable reasons,” the lawmakers continued. “He also, disturbingly, appears to be unaware that many federal employees are locked out of their systems due to DOGE’s ongoing intrusion into federal information technology infrastructure.  Finally, neither Musk nor OPM has explained to the public how OPM and the agencies would even review and process potentially two million responses from across the government—which are duplicative of existing performance management procedures—without diverting resources and costing the American people money and services.”

Since President Trump unleashed Elon Musk to harass federal workers nationwide, Congressman Cleaver has pushed back against the Administration’s effort to purge the federal workforce. Earlier this month, Rep. Cleaver joined lawmakers to question the Trump Administration’s “Deferred Resignation” proposal, seeking information about the proposal and its impact on local communities. Additionally, Cleaver held a listening session with federal workers and local labor unions from the Fifth Congressional District of Missouri to hear directly from civil servants impacted by the Trump Administration’s assault on America’s civil servants.

If you are a federal worker and would like to share information with Oversight Democrats regarding potential wrongdoing, abuses of power, and threats to federal workers by the Trump Administration, you can blow the whistle here.

The official letter from lawmakers is available here.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.