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Elon Musk on Thursday briefed the Senate’s DOGE Caucus on his organization’s work after a month of moves to dismantle some government agencies, lay off workers and slash costs.
Musk’s message: His work is orderly and coordinated with Cabinet secretaries.
Musk told Republican senators at the White House that Department of Government Efficiency representatives within the government are “actually agency officials that are reporting to the secretaries,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Semafor. It’s an important distinction given that lawmakers have worried about communication between Cabinet secretaries and DOGE staffers.
Ernst, who chairs the DOGE Caucus, shared the example Musk gave to Republicans about DOGE’s orderliness, a case of government software licenses that exceeded the number of employees within specific agencies.
DOGE “will then turn around and make a recommendation and say, ‘Hey, you probably need to eliminate these unnecessary licenses.’ And so, then the agency heads can decide whether to take those recommendations or not,” Ernst said.
Musk has sent Washington reeling with his downsizing of the federal workforce, which is now entering its second phase of broader layoffs, and dismantling of the US Agency for International Development as well as other reorganizations.
Republicans largely back DOGE and Musk, even as new firings or reshufflings surprise them on a near-daily basis. Ernst said that Musk is also intent on working with Congress to cut spending through its power over the federal purse.
“We’re working with them to find ways that legislatively we can provide action, where maybe there are things they can’t. We’ll be meshed and nested together with their efforts,” Ernst said.
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A handful of Republicans, like Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, are raising concerns about the speed and manner in which Musk is moving. And Democrats are ramping up their campaign to link President Donald Trump to Musk, whom they see as an easy target due to his wealth and erratic social media presence.
After Musk ordered federal employees in an email to lay out what they accomplished over the past week, Murkowski responded that “our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
But members of the DOGE Caucus sit largely on the other end of the divide; they were seeking more information about what it’s doing in order to talk it up to their constituents.
“The senators are all really excited about being able to go out over March recess and talk about what DOGE is finding and how it’s being handled,” Ernst said.
In total, 21 of the 53 GOP senators attended the meeting, according to a person familiar with the planning: Ernst, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Katie Britt of Alabama, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Tim Sheehy of Montana, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Jon Husted of Ohio, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Jim Risch of Idaho and Steve Daines of Montana.
Notable
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Former GOP speaker aide Brendan Buck writes that Congress needs to start clawing some power back, and DOGE offers an opportunity to do so.
