Well, New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone didn't hold back this week during an energy subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill.

The ranking member blasted Republicans for not standing up to President Trump's executive orders, specifically measures that tried to freeze federal funding for programs across the government.

Pallone called it a power grab and dangerous and corrupt.

The comments came as Democratic lawmakers accused Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, of gaining access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building and its computer systems.

And as the task force has improperly entered government buildings around Washington, D.C. in recent days, now Congressman Pallone is joining other ranking Democrats in efforts to investigate the executive orders and any attempt to freeze federal funding.

He joins me now.

Congressman, thanks for your time today.

Tell me a little bit more about how you and other leading Democrats are looking to hold the Trump administration accountable.

What steps have you taken so far?

Well, first of all, we just sent letters from my committee to all the federal agencies that could potentially be impacted by this funding freeze.

And, you know, basically with President Trump is doing is stealing from the American people, in other words, all these, all this federal funding that's already been allocated, you know, appropriated under the law, you know, whether it's for cancer treatment or home energy assistance or removal of toxic lead pipes, the list goes on.

These are all things that Congress has appropriated under the law.

And when he steals this money and says we're not giving it to the community, he's acting illegally.

And now, of course, the memo that he put out to these federal agencies has now been withdrawn.

But every indication is a lot of money is still not going up.

The white House, though, says, that those direct assistance programs, regardless of where things stand now, would not have been affected and that they are looking to trim, what they call billions of dollars in waste in federal spending.

And that they're reviewing all of these payments.

What do you say to that argument?

Well, why if they want to review all these things, they can, but that's not what they did.

In other words, they froze the funding.

And, I don't care whether it's HUD for housing or it's just Snap and food stamps or it's, Medicaid health care programs.

We've been getting calls from, all these different agencies and local governments saying that, in fact, the money isn't available.

It feels like to me the move on the federal funding freeze was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.

And now we've seen a more unified message, a much less muted response.

I mean, would you agree with that?

Was that what kind of charged everybody up?

I think so.

Look, I mean, the bottom line is, you know, everybody wants to give a new administration a chance, but the kind of the chaos that we're seeing now, Brianna, with the funding freeze and trying to disassemble various agencies, you know, this is getting to the point where it's it's the level of chaos or incompetence is just not acceptable.

So that's why I think you're going to see more and more, you know, objections only by Democrats, but by a lot of organizations.

Let me shift gears.

Because I know you spoke on this, Dodge, which is the task force that Elon Musk has been charged with leading, was accused of entering NOAA, this week.

The the office building there, accessing sensitive information.

You've spoken pretty strongly about this.

What are the risks to.

I mean, obviously, climate research and policy, but also for folks in new Jersey, our economy, our shore economy.

Well, remember that NOAA does the weather service.

And I'm very concerned that, what Elon Musk wants to do is privatize the weather service, privatize a lot of the things that come under NOAA's jurisdiction.

If you deny climate change, the easiest way to deny it is this is to control the weather reports.

I know it sounds absurd, but that's exactly what they seem to want to do.

So they can say, oh, there's not a climate crisis because the weather is not that bad.

I mean, you know, it's basic scientific information and data that that NOAA puts out that is used by the weather service, by, all kinds of things fisheries management, management, you know, bathing in the summer, you know, when, when, the, the, you know, they do like the beach testing and that type of thing of the water to see if it's dirty.

All of these things are in jeopardy.

House Republicans yesterday, I'm sure, as you know, Congressman, blocked oversight.

Democrats, ability to subpoena Elon Musk.

Members of Doge for more information.

Are there other safeguards in place?

I mean, how else can you go about getting the information that you and many of your colleagues are looking for?

Well, we're going to do a number of things, Brianna.

First of all, we're going to ask for the information.

If they deny giving it to us, then we'll have to go to court.

I mean, there's really, you know, to be honest, when in the first Trump administration, a lot of times they would not respond to our inquiries.

And then we we had to go to court.

And so, you know, whatever it is, you know, we're not going to let this stand.

They can't be stealing this money.

And, you know, basically taking apart these agencies are so important to our health and safety.

Congressman Frank Pallone, always good to talk to you.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Brianna.