The top Democrat on the U.S. House committee tasked with holding the Trump administration accountable said Tuesday during a debate on a Republican proposal that the GOP knows President Donald Trump cannot legally "'delete' whole federal agencies" or "take a chainsaw to beloved programs like Social Security and Medicaid."
"Congressional Republicans also know these dangerous, deeply unpopular cuts would never be approved by Congress through regular order," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "So now they've brought us H.R. 1295, the so-called Reorganizing Government Act, in a desperate attempt to circumvent the normal congressional process."
The bill, said Connolly, would more accurately be called the Dismantling Government Act, with its resurrection of a "long-dormant statute as a Trojan horse to give President Trump and Elon Musk unprecedented, filibuster-proof authority to eliminate federal departments and agencies, statutory programs, government services, and regulatory protections that promote the health and well-being of American families."
H.R. 1295 was approved to advance out of the committee in a party-line vote, with Republicans voting to give Trump authority that has not been granted by Congress since 1984, allowing him to submit a plan to restructure federal agencies. Congress would be required to vote on the plan within 90 days and the proposals would not be subject to a filibuster, allowing the GOP-controlled Senate to approve the dismantling of agencies with a simple majority.
Between 1932 and 1984, Congress periodically gave presidents limited authority to reorganize limited portions of the government, but lawmakers have denied requests from both Democratic and Republican presidents to renew the authority.
Under the Dismantling Government Act, Trump would be permitted to make sweeping changes to agencies through December 31, 2026, and the previous limitation barring presidents from abolishing agencies would be removed.
In his opening statement during the committee's debate on the legislation Tuesday, Connolly warned that "the Dismantling Government Act would grant Donald Trump and Elon Musk a filibuster-proof pathway to get their reckless actions blessed by Congress, and we already know exactly what they'll do with that power."
The Republicans proposed the legislation amid numerous attempts by Trump and Musk, the billionaire tech CEO and megadonor he appointed to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to dismantle federal agencies and freeze government funding—some of which have been blocked by federal courts.
"The reason they are pushing for this bill is because Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE have already been found consistently to be acting outside of the law in their mass layoffs and agency closures by the courts," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz). "Now, instead of defending their own powers, congressional Republicans are pushing forward this bill to hand over their powers to the president."
Under the Dismantling Government Act, Trump and Musk would be granted filibuster-proof, unilateral power to:
- Abolish federal departments and agencies including the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other federal agencies that protect consumers, with just a simple majority vote in the House and the Senate;
- End statutory programs mandated by Congress through "reorganization" plans, which could lead to cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential programs Americans rely on;
- Gut agencies' abilities to enforce laws and regulations, and eliminate rules and regulations deemed "unnecessary and burdensome," threatening protections for Americans' clean drinking water, environment, health, and safety; and
- Fire federal workers, hamstringing the courts' ability to serve as a check for the dismantling of our government.
"Since the start of the Trump-Musk regime they have engaged in shocking abuses of power and taken a wrecking ball to the services and earned benefits regular Americans depend on to pay for more tax breaks for their billionaire donors and expand their own fortunes," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. "This bill, better called the Dismantling Government Act, is a power grab that would greenlight an enormous expansion of presidential power, help Trump and Musk skirt checks and balances, and accelerate their ultimate agenda of gutting Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to offset tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."
"The Trump-Musk administration's billionaire-first agenda has already shifted the balance of power to help corporate special interests, and away from everyday Americans—this bill would rubber-stamp unchecked abuses of power even further," Carrk added.
Accountable.US is one of 200 civil society groups, representing millions of Americans, that signed a letter calling on Congress to reject the legislation.
"H.R. 1295 not only creates a fast track to dismantle these critical entities but does so by exempting these efforts from the filibuster, thus allowing the Senate to eliminate these agencies and their critical functions with a simple majority. In other words, this bill provides a fast track to the destruction of the critical entities that ensure our families are safe, our workers have protections, our environment is protected, and our markets are fair," wrote the groups, which form the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, on Monday.
"The American public expects Congress to make government work more effectively and preserve the separation of powers," the coalition added, "not give presidents 'carte blanche' to dismantle government agencies and institutions."
