
Inside the GOP’s careful pushback to Musk’s DOGE effort
CNN
Congressional Republicans are publicly projecting that they’re in lockstep with the way President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are attempting to slash the federal workforce. But under the surface, some GOP lawmakers are growing concerned by the effort to usurp Congress’s control of the federal purse strings.
Congressional Republicans are publicly projecting that they’re in lockstep with the way President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are attempting to slash the federal workforce. But under the surface, some GOP lawmakers are growing concerned by the effort to usurp Congress’ control of the federal purse strings. And they’re dealing with a deluge of calls from worried constituents and federal workers who are looking to their elected officials for answers. Some are taking action, testing the waters for what a new era of pushback in a second Trump term looks like. GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who supports the idea of auditing the federal government, has asked the Trump administration to go line by line through US Agency for International Development funding and pushed them to preserve the programs that serve the country’s national security interests. “Instead of getting rid of everything, let’s look at it selectively,” Bacon said. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” Even though Bacon supports the idea of shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the latest agency the administration has unilaterally shuttered, he argued that Trump can’t ultimately usurp Congress.