March 5 (UPI) — Department of Government Efficiency Director Elon Musk met with GOP lawmakers Wednesday after suggesting the federal government privatize services as much as possible.
Musk attended a closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon, the Washington Post and Politico reported.
Musk also recently made a virtual appearance at a San Francisco technology conference hosted by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday and called Amtrak trains a “sad situation” when compared to high-speed rail services in Europe and Asia.
“If you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail,” Musk said, as reported by NBC News. “It can leave you with a very bad impression of America.”
Musk told conference attendees Amtrak and the Postal Service are prime candidates for privatization and said that would be the best way to improve both.
“Something’s got to have some chance of going bankrupt,” he said, “or there’s not a good feedback loop for improvement.”
President Donald Trump also has expressed interest in privatizing the Postal Service and last month told media Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would look into putting the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service.
“We’re losing so much money with the Postal Service, and we don’t want to lose that kind of money,” Trump said.
The Postal Service on Nov. 14 reported a loss of $1.8 billion for the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September, which was $434 million less than its fiscal year 2023 loss.
Much of that loss is due to retiree pension liability and compensation adjustments for non-cash workers.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., confirmed Musk attended the Senate GOP lunch a week after some Senate Republicans told Musk he needed to do better at communicating and coordinating with lawmakers while working to reduce the size and cost of the federal government.
Scott organizes the weekly Wednesday afternoon lunches among GOP Senators and had told his colleagues he would invite Musk to speak with them regarding DOGE activities and their effect on the federal government and lawmakers’ constituents.
Musk also is scheduled to meet with House GOP lawmakers Wednesday evening.
Republican lawmakers in both chambers of Congress aired concerns about how Musk and DOGE had been going about mass firings while cutting costs without seeking input from federal lawmakers.
Many Republican senators and representatives have received complaints from constituents regarding the potential impact of the federal workforce reduction and the way in which it was occurring.