Rep. Courtney on NBC CT: Elon Musk, Funding Freeze, Top Coast Guard Firing
NORWICH, CT – Today, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) joined NBC Connecticut’s Face the Facts to discuss the gross overreach of Elon Musk’s DOGE, the ongoing local consequences of the federal funding freeze, and President Trump’s day-one firing of the top Coast Guard official, Admiral Linda Fagan.
Watch the full clip here. Read highlights below.
NBC: This week, protests were held in state capitals across the country calling for accountability, asking why someone who wasn't elected is allowed to have this kind of impact. What Elon Musk is doing, having access to these payment systems, working on trying to get these government employees to resign, is this legal?
COURTNEY ON TREASURY: [The Treasury system] is like a black box that has personal information, you know, names, home addresses, Social Security numbers. I mean, it's just incredibly sensitive.
This has been a pretty tumultuous three weeks. That particular issue has blown up our phones, both in my district office and also down in Washington.
We introduced legislation, as members of Congress, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which puts strict rules in law in terms of who is authorized to have access to this information. People who have been scrubbed and cleaned for conflicts of interest, have actual real background checks, and have been at least a year in public service prior to that.
NBC: What about the clarity of the federal funding pause? So, there's hospitals here in Connecticut that require or use federal funding, nonprofits, things like that. Where does that stand in your mind?
COURTNEY ON FUNDING FREEZE: I will tell you, we had the community health centers in Washington [Thursday] who were affected initially. Their payment system was shut off and now it's open, but they’re not getting paid.
NBC: So you mean they can log in, but they can’t use it?
COURTNEY: Exactly.
COURTNEY ON EXECUTIVE ORDERS: But, again, then there's a third group, which is at UCONN with research grantees, that are up there [facing] a different executive order which basically shut down payments based on DEI. Totally vague.
No one has any clue about what's going on. And the DEI memos keep coming out, and they change a little bit each time. And so, if you're someone who's doing research, in terms of preventing diabetes or autism, but you're obviously trying to help really adversely affected communities, maybe that's affected by DEI.
But the real harm is that they do really important, good work, and they're just now being just completely paralyzed.
NBC CT: I just got about thirty seconds left. I just want you to comment on the coast guard situation where the commandant was let go.
COURTENY ON ADM. FAGAN: Personally knowing Linda Fagan, who, again, was the consummate professional, totally nonpartisan, outstanding career, doing great work– [The Coast Guard] has record fentanyl and drug seizures, a record recruitment year in 2024.
I was at an international conference with her in Singapore where the Coast Guard is helping smaller island nations out there deal with protecting their fishing rights. And to just basically throw her to the wayside in really one of the most rude and disrespectful manners, throw her out of her house down in Washington with three hours’ notice, I mean, I'm sorry, that's disrespectful to the uniform and to the service.