GOP Senators Warn Musk: Cuts Must Go Through Us

Republican senators told the Department of Government Efficiency's Elon Musk at a closed-door meeting on Wednesday that cuts made to the government would have to go through them.

The Hill reported that the meeting served as a warning to Musk to respect their power of the purse.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who largely supports the cuts, told reporters after the luncheon meeting that in order for Musk's recommendations to pass muster, they would need to be codified in a spending rescission package.

"To make it real, to make it go beyond the moment of the day, it needs to come back in the form of a rescission package," Paul said, pointing to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on Wednesday to reject the Trump administration's efforts to freeze billions in foreign spending.

"I love all the stuff they're doing," he added, "but we got to vote on it. My message to Elon was, 'Let's get over the impoundment idea and let's send it back as a rescission package.' Then, what we have to do is get to 51 senators or 50 senators" to vote "to cut the spending. We talked a lot about, how do we make these things permanent? Rescission was a big part of the discussion."

Other Republican senators voiced opinions similar to Paul's that the cuts would need to be back with their approval. Chair of the Senate Budget Committee Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., added there was a broad desire among the Republican conference for the cuts.

"Yes, yes, 100%," Graham said, "and we should be doing it, like, yesterday."

"You could do regulatory reform without us, but anything that doesn't fit within [budget] reconciliation has to be done through rescissions."

Graham and other Republican lawmakers said that the cuts couldn't be included in the special budget reconciliation package, which is focused on border security, energy reform, and tax policy.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, echoed Graham, and added, "My understanding is, since the budget reconciliation deals with mandatory spending [and] that the DOGE cuts would be primarily from discretionary, the way we'd do that procedurally is for the White House to request us to take up a rescissions package. We could pass it with 51 votes here and a majority in the House."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was not in attendance at that meeting, said that with regard to a reconciliation package, "you always hear Republicans say, We don't have 60 votes in the Senate, so we can't possibly do anything conservative. We're gonna get Democrats to get this across the line.

"But here's a chance where you don't need Democrats to pass it, and you can touch the mandatory side, which the RINOs [Republicans in name only] here always say that's the problem and that's the reason they don't want to touch discretionary."

Massie then said that the budget resolution approved by the House and set by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., would approve "$20 trillion of debt to our national debt over the next 10 years."

Massie said the projection for the budget — going from $36 trillion to $56 trillion — is under the "rosiest of scenarios."

Wednesday's meeting revealed that Musk had underestimated Congress' role in the process. According to The Hill, the billionaire was unaware that a rescissions package could pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than the usual 60-vote threshold.

Some Republican senators, including Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized Musk's "sledgehammer approach," arguing that his aggressive spending freezes and workforce reductions were causing unnecessary chaos.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' recent dismissal of 1,400 probationary employees — on top of 1,000 layoffs earlier in February —had particularly ruffled feathers, prompting backlash and claims of an "administrative error" after Congress pushed back.

Behind closed doors, however, the tone was more measured. While some GOP lawmakers had fumed about Musk's tactics in private meetings with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, they struck a more diplomatic tone in person.

"Senators were much nicer to him in person than they have been," a source familiar with the meeting said. "A week ago, people were pretty cranky: 'They're shutting down stuff, we're not being told.' They were much more polite to him in person."

Musk, for his part, agreed to establish a process for responding to congressional concerns, a move that seemed to appease some senators. But despite the outreach, the underlying tension remains.

Musk's significant financial influence — having spent at least $288 million to back Trump and Republican candidates in 2024 — has made many lawmakers wary of crossing him. Musk vowed that his political action committee has signaled plans to play a "significant role" in upcoming primaries, and that he has kept a "naughty list" of Republicans who veer too far from Trump's agenda.