Senate Republicans push to codify DOGE cuts after Musk meeting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans pushed for the U.S. Congress to codify spending cuts identified by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court declined to let President Donald Trump withhold payments to foreign aid organizations.

After a lunch meeting with Musk, Republican lawmakers acknowledged the 5-4 court ruling did not bode well for White House hopes of taking unilateral action to cut spending allocated by Congress through a controversial process known as impoundment.

"There is a realization going to set in that Congress has to be a part of that," Senate Republican Rand Paul told reporters.

"I love what Elon is doing. 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," the Kentucky Republican said.

Musk huddled behind closed doors with House Republicans on Wednesday evening and spelled out DOGE's efforts to uncover wasteful spending, an initiative that many Republicans applauded.

But others emerged with a more skeptical view.

"When you have a very small group with a broad set of powers, able to inflict dramatic change on institutions without a lot of knowledge, that means the process of cleaning up afterwards is going to be extensive," said Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma.

Senate Republicans said Musk, a top adviser to Trump, was "elated" by Paul's suggestion that the White House request congressional approval to rescind spending through a legislative process that would circumvent the Senate's 60-vote filibuster.

"He was, like, so happy," said Senator Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.

"What we've got to do as Republicans is capture their work product, put it in a bill and vote on it. So, the White House, I'm urging them to come up with a rescission package," the South Carolina Republican added.

The rescission process, which Congress established in 1974, allows presidents to cancel allocated funds through legislation approved by simple majorities in Senate and House of Representatives. The procedure was last used under former President Bill Clinton. An attempt at rescission during Trump's first term failed in the Senate.

House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed open to the possibility, telling reporters: "We'll do whatever the White House requests. It's a little premature to expect that. But that's certainly a possibility and one that we would entertain, if it's appropriate."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk's DOGE has rattled members of the public by moving to cut spending programs, eliminating government contracts and ousting tens of thousands of federal workers, resulting in stormy town hall meetings with lawmakers that led Republican leaders this week to discourage open public forums.

Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate said Musk told lawmakers that agencies - not DOGE - have been cutting back on federal jobs including those that turned out to belong to essential workers.

"DOGE said, hey, it'd be a good idea to look at people that are probationary employees. Not everybody used the common sense of saying don't get rid of people that are essential," Representative Brian Mast told reporters.

Lawmakers said Musk and his team are working on a communications system that would enable members of Congress with questions or concerns about DOGE's activity to reach out quickly to the team of the unofficial entity.

Republicans said Musk offered no specific figure for the amount of spending DOGE has identified as evidence of waste, fraud and abuse.

The only official window into DOGE's effort to slash spending and the federal workforce is a website that is marked by major errors, including hundreds of deleted claims of savings, according to a Reuters analysis of the data.

"DOGE is doing a lot of good things, and some things they need to change," said Graham, who told reporters that Musk acknowledged that some things need to be fixed.

"Some of them probably have gone too far. The probationary status ... we need to revisit that. I'm very reassured by hearing him. I mean, he wants to do logical, rational things, and the system needs to be fine-tuned."

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone, Diane Craft and Sandra Maler)