Congress is a busy place. But as Elon Musk made very clear to federal workers on Saturday, those paid by the taxpayers need to be ready to justify their salaries at a moment’s notice.
The Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal employees demanding they respond with five things they did the previous week, and Musk said failure to respond would count as a resignation. The administration clarified Monday that responding wouldn’t be required (although Musk suggested it might be required later).
As the famously dysfunctional Congress tries to get anything done, NOTUS decided to ask lawmakers what five things they did last week. Some were more than happy to supply an answer.
“I take my job really, really seriously, and I think it’s incredibly telling when people are deeply offended that they have to list five things they did in a single week,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden told NOTUS, after listing off five things that included flying to Israel, visiting injured Israeli soldiers, and promoting international trade with Wisconsin with the agriculture minister there.
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Rep. Ralph Norman agreed, saying people should “gladly volunteer that, and if they can’t name it, then why are they getting a paycheck?” His list included meeting with constituents, responding to letters sent to his office and finishing off some legislative work (he tacked on four-wheeling with his grandson as a bonus).
Lawmakers are paid with federal dollars, too. They’ve debated getting raises, whether or not they work too much, and face questions over whether they’re fit to do their jobs.
Out of those who chose to rattle off five things, the most common answers were committee meetings, votes, meetings with constituents and town halls. But some got a little more creative.
“I voted on bills, I went to several committees, I talked to a bunch of constituents. I read The Economist. I tried to read the NOTUS, but it was behind a paywall,” Sen. John Kennedy said (Editor’s Note: NOTUS is not paywalled). “I paid some bills. I’m moving apartments, so I threw out a lot of old toiletries. If you need some 8-year-old Right Guard, it’s in the trash in my apartment. You’re welcome to it.”
Several lawmakers took the opportunity to boost their constituent services.
“I put out a newsletter every week, so I’ve got my five,” Sen. Rick Scott said, before listing off constituent calls, some of his votes and a bill he filed. “But if you go look at my newsletter, there’s way more than that.”
“Oh, I did a tweet on this,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “Did you see my tweet?”
Many lawmakers didn’t play along.
Sen. John Fetterman first declined to answer what he did last week, but then changed his mind and said he “ate some great wings.”
Sen. Roger Marshall said he’d send over his list. Sen. Josh Hawley said, “We took, what was it? 27 amendment votes, or something like that? There’s 27 things.”
“If I say I went to bed, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, does that count?” Rep. Jared Moskowitz asked.
On X, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett had some fun with the question posed to him after supporting Musk’s tactic.
“I had 39 meetings in and out of our office, fixed 3 fences, chased my escaped donkeys multiple times, cleaned barn stalls, snuck the donkeys some peppermints and worked on my new skateboard idea,” he wrote.
Some Democrats used the question as an opportunity to emphasize their disapproval of Musk.
“Lots of cursing,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said of her past week. “But I did not overstep my bounds and try to do somebody else’s job. It seems that Elon Musk is either trying to do the president’s job, or maybe he is the president. We don’t know.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono said something similar.
“The first thought that occurred to me is, ‘What are five things that he’s doing? Besides creating chaos and fear among our federal workers?” she said of Musk. She added that she recently did a video thanking federal workers for their commitment to the country’s “health, safety and welfare.”
“What has Elon Musk done along those lines? Nothing that I can see,” she said.
Sen. Mark Kelly referred NOTUS to his public schedule when asked what he did last week. But he had a more recent update to share.
“I had a military officer in my office 30 minutes ago. He received one of these emails. He’s on active duty,” he said. “This is not the way to run a government. This is how you run a Discount Furniture Store.”
But Republicans argued that it shouldn’t be hard to provide a list.
“I think it was all designed to find out whether or not anybody was on a warm beach that day instead of in the office,” Sen. Mike Rounds said.
And for Congress, their work is always the same.
“For us, it’s pretty obvious what we do up here. Go to hearings and see constituents, come and vote, vote-a-rama, that was about 20 things,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville said. “There’s some agencies that need to be held accountable, need to find out if they’re still working.”
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Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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