Pallone Blasts Trump Executive Order Aimed at Destroying Independent Federal Agencies and Upending Americans’ Lives

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement today after President Trump issued an Executive Order attempting to gut the independence of federal commissions, many of them under the Committee’s jurisdiction, including the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This is a component of Trump’s radical Project 2025 agenda, which promised to abolish independent agencies. 

“This is a dangerous power grab by an unhinged president willing to put Americans’ lives and livelihoods at risk to consolidate his own control. It is a gross abuse of power that would shatter the independence of these agencies and expose Americans to safety risks, higher prices, and more frequent scams. Elon Musk and his DOGE lackeys are the last people on Earth who should be determining the safety levels of America’s nuclear reactors, or deciding which of their billionaire friends’ websites should get a free pass to deceive consumers and undermine their privacy.

“This is a five-alarm fire and it is despicable that Republicans, who have touted ‘small government’ for decades, are standing by silently while Trump turns their platform into a punchline. It’s proof that they no longer have any allegiance to anything other than Trump and Elon Musk. If they did, they would recognize that this Executive Order is wildly dangerous and that Congress, the courts, and the commissions themselves must join together to fight it.”

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