Some Gop Members Feel Helpless As Doge Cuts Hit

A growing number of congressional Republicans are desperately trying to back-channel with White House officials as President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency ramps up its slash-and-burn firings of federal workers.

GOP lawmakers unleashed a frantic flurry of calls and texts after federal agencies undertook the latest firings this past weekend, with Republicans particularly worried about cuts affecting public safety and health roles. Trump’s legislative affairs team, headed by former JD Vance aide James Braid, took the brunt of the frenetic fallout, according to four Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.

For the most part, Republican members are publicly cheering the administration's push to slash the federal government, which is being led by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk with Trump’s blessing. But privately, many are feeling helpless to counter the meat-ax approach that has been embraced so far, with lawmakers especially concerned about the dismissal of military veterans working in federal agencies as well as USDA employees handling the growing bird flu outbreak affecting poultry and dairy farms.

“I thought we were supposed to be in a new era of meritocracy. Not the indiscriminate firing of people,” said one Republican congressional aide granted anonymity to speak candidly.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the administration’s efforts are “already uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse across federal agencies and ensuring better stewardship of taxpayer dollars, including for American farmers and families.” The president, she said, will eventually “cut programs that do not serve the interests of the American people and keep programs that put America First.”

Republican lawmakers are growing particularly uneasy with cuts impacting veterans, who are given preference in the federal hiring process and have been disproportionately affected by the dismissals. GOP members are also concerned that federal services for veterans could be affected.

Republicans have quietly warned the White House to reinstate many of the 1,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs who have been dismissed in recent days.

Senate Veterans Affairs Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in an interview that he and his staff have been communicating their concerns with the White House legislative affairs team, along with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

“Certainly on the veterans side, we’re asking for information from the administration,” Moran said. “We are being reassured that no one at the VA who has any direct care responsibilities are being terminated or laid off, and we're just looking for the positions and circumstances in which it's occurring.”

Other Republicans consider federal agency officials powerless to call off DOGE. They’re instead focusing their efforts on the White House as their offices are inundated with calls from frantic constituents.

Their strategy to back-channel with any White House official who will pick up the phone has yielded some small, scattered successes. The Agriculture Department said Monday it would reverse some of the firings impacting the bird flu response after GOP lawmakers complained to the White House legislative affairs team and other Trump officials.

The fears of Republican lawmakers in rural districts go deeper, though. They’re also worried about the long-term fallout of Trump’s moves as the federal government struggles to hire the next generation of federal employees who will keep farm and public health programs running across rural America.

Vulnerable GOP incumbents on Capitol Hill are also wary that Musk is turning his ire toward Medicare and Medicaid, posting claims of widespread fraud and abuse within those systems.

“I worry what his plans are,” said one Republican lawmaker who questioned whether cuts would be limited to waste, fraud and abuse or would curtail benefits for legitimate program participants. House GOP leaders are separately pushing for major Medicaid cuts to help pay for Trump’s legislative agenda.

While the DOGE buzz saw continues to spin, many GOP lawmakers from leadership to the rank and file have settled on a strategy of keeping a careful eye on Musk’s team while refraining from public criticism.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday that GOP lawmakers will intervene with the Trump administration “if there are things that we think that need to be addressed” or if there are issues “perhaps they’re not considering when they make these decisions.”

Thune added he thought it was key “that we don’t undermine important services,” including health and safety. But he put his support behind the administration’s efforts to give the federal government a careful “scrub” with the goal of a more limited presence.

Many other Republicans are praising efforts to slash federal funding. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he suggested to Vance during Senate Republicans’ private lunch this week that Congress should codify the DOGE cuts, so that they “become real.”

Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson praised DOGE: "What Elon and the team are doing is what Congress has not had the ability to do. … They are exposing this massive fraud, waste and abuse that we have not been unable to uncover because the deep state has hidden it from us.”

But some GOP lawmakers have found reasons to be critical as they watch Musk exert more influence than they have ever enjoyed as elected officials. Fiscal hawks, for instance, were taken aback this week when Musk floated sending $5,000 rebate checks to Americans, representing a portion of DOGE’s savings.

“Happy to do that once we balance the budget,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) posted on X.

Less than 24 hours later, Trump himself suggested it may happen.