Senators from Trump's party express concerns about Musk's DOGE to White House chief of staff
Kyiv • UNN
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles meets with Republicans to discuss cuts to the Musk-led Government Performance and Results Administration. Senators demand more transparency about changes in federal agencies.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday tried to allay concerns of US Senate Republicans about Elon Musk's elimination of federal bureaucracy, as lawmakers are increasingly raising issues of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), NBC News reports, UNN writes.
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"Everybody's concerned when people leave your state," said Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, "but we all understand that this is - this is just part of it, you know, we're too bloated, we need to cut back.
Wiles met with lawmakers during a visit to Capitol Hill for lunch with members of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, a group that includes many of the party's conservative senators.
Senate Republicans who attended the meeting said Wiles answered several questions about the work being led by Musk, and even senators who support Trump's agenda demanded more transparency about the DOGE cuts to federal agencies.
"We would like to have a bigger table with the results of how this is going," Tuberville said.
Tuberville, a staunch Trump ally, said Wiles described DOGE's procedures and staffing and noted that Musk's role in the organization is to provide oversight to the "young people" who run the operation.
The meeting highlighted the growing concerns and questions that members of the US president's own party have about how Trump's cuts are affecting their constituents - and possibly their own re-election prospects, the newspaper writes.
Republican senators leaving a meeting with Wiles on Wednesday said that Republican Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the GOP steering committee, said he was trying to find a time for Musk to speak to Republicans at an upcoming lunch. A spokesman for Scott said that Musk's appearance has not been blocked.
The meeting with Wiles came after several Republican lawmakers faced constituent resistance at events over DOGE's moves to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce. The resistance became so strong that party leaders urged lawmakers to hold virtual events to limit potential disruptions or postpone the events altogether.