House Democrat accuses Musk of derailing spending deal over restrictions on China

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of thwarting the first of three government funding extensions because the legislation could have limited his business’ operating ability in China. 

She contended in a letter to congressional leadership that Mr. Musk was keen to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson’s first stopgap bill because it would have limited and screened outbound investments to China. 

“It is particularly disturbing that Musk may have sought to upend this critical negotiated agreement to remove a bipartisan provision regulating U.S. investments in China in order to protect his wallet and the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of American workers, innovators and businesses,” Ms. DeLauro wrote. 

The letter was sent Friday, just before Congress passed the third attempt at a government funding extension. The latest offering didn’t include the outbound investment provision, which lawmakers had expected to be included in a year-end funding package after it was left out of the National Defense Authorization Act that passed this week. 

Ms. DeLauro wrote that the measure would have prevented taxpayer funding innovations and manufacturing of “semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other cutting-edge technologies” in the U.S. and would have halted “wealthy investors from continuing to offshore production and U.S. intellectual property into China.” 

Mr. Musk, who was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to co-chair his government efficiency advisory panel, does have business interests in China. Indeed, Tesla, for which he’s the CEO, has a gigafactory in Shanghai and is building a battery facility nearby. 

Ms. DeLauro noted that battery production was among the items that would have been screened under the outbound investment legislation. 

“This is particularly concerning, given Elon Musk’s extensive investments in China in key sectors and his personal ties with Chinese Communist Party leadership, and calls into question the real reason for Musk’s opposition to the original funding deal,” she wrote. 

Mr. Musk launched into a flurry of posts on X, the social media platform he owns, bemoaning the bipartisan spending deal over its size and contents. He made no mention of the outbound investment provision. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Musk and Ms. DeLauro got into a spat on X where he went after her appearance. She countered by posting a photo of Mr. Musk jumping at a Trump rally with the caption “swamp creature.”