Republican senators are seeking assurances from Elon Musk that they will get a final say in how his Department of Government Efficiency slashes federal budgets.
It’s all very well cutting the fat and clawing back cash from fraud, Musk was told, but lawmakers are demanding that they are the ones to vote it into law.
They want all the cuts included in one big DOGE bill.
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The world’s richest man met with the senators at a private lunch on Wednesday. It was unclear how he felt about having to get approval for the work he sees as having the backing of Donald Trump.
According to sources at the meeting, while there was an appreciation of how Musk’s DOGE staff were seeking to uncover wide-scale fraud and do away with unnecessary spending, senators made it clear they expected to see a bill detailing the plan to cut wasteful spending.
The crunch point emerged during an otherwise civil lunch hosted by Senate Steering Committee Chairman Rick Scott to give senators an opportunity to quiz the slasher-in-chief.
“I made the point that I’ve been making over and over again, that I love what Elon is doing,” said Sen. Rand Paul. “I love the cutting of the waste. I love finding all the crazy crap that we’re spending overseas—but 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. This is a simple majority vote.”
Paul referred to Wednesday’s narrow Supreme Court decision blocking an attempt by Trump and Musk to unilaterally stop congressionally agreed spending, leaving them liable to pay out about $2 billion in foreign aid.
The ruling, which is likely to be challenged, meant the Trump administration could not ignore Congress in its financial dealings.
“We had a ruling this morning from the Supreme Court that seems to be pushing towards that there needs to be rescission, that they’re not going to be able to impound,” added Paul.
The lunch meeting was called by Scott after senators had complained privately about Musk’s lack of transparency and his refusal to answer their questions. According to The Hill, senators raised their issues during a meeting last week with Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles.
