Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk met with House Republicans Wednesday night to update them on work done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as the newly created group takes significant steps to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.
The conversation followed a decision made by House Republicans — led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — to punt codifying the DOGE cuts until after September, delaying the process so lawmakers have more time to parse through the particulars.
But while Republicans have ruled out incorporating measures to reflect DOGE cuts in an upcoming stopgap measure to keep the government open past March 14, Johnson said the group talked about the possibility of clawing back some of that funding at a later date in a separate package even if they do pass a “clean” continuing resolution.
“We talked about that,” Johnson said when asked about recessions. “If there are savings and things that relate to FY 25 and we have already passed the CR then yes, of course, you will have recessions that would come from the administration, from the executive branch, and then Congress would act upon that, because we want to save taxpayer dollars, and we want to spend them wisely as good stewards.”
Despite the punt on immediate action to codify DOGE’s cuts, Republican lawmakers are invested in the work the group is doing, with Johnson saying that Musk and Congress “coordinate the efforts.”
“This extraordinary work that Elon Musk is doing with DOGE, that he’s explaining to our House Republicans tonight, is transformative,” Johnson said. It’s really revolutionary in the way that we’ll do budgeting, we’ll limit the size and scope of the federal government, and we’ll be much more accountable to taxpayers in this country, and that’s long overdue.
“So I’m so grateful that he’s doing that and sharing the updates and latest insights with the members,” Johnson added, “and I think there’ll be a lot of good work that comes out of this.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the gathering was “outstanding.”
“It was an explanation of how they’re finding things, the way that they’re finding things, the way these scams are taking place across multiple agencies of government,” Mast added. “It was great to hear him really explain the methodology behind everything that’s going on.”
The tone and tenor of the meeting marked a contrast from Musk’s huddle with the Senate GOP conference earlier in the day when Republicans told the billionaire that his efforts to reshape and resize the federal government will require a vote on Capitol Hill — signaling that he and his agency should respect Congress’s power of the purse.
Musk did receive some pushback from House Republicans. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said he pressed Musk on how DOGE’s efforts have impacted veterans and farmers.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins confirmed Wednesday that the agency plans to cut 72,000 jobs, returning to 2019 staffing levels. The latest cuts come after more than 2,000 VA employees were fired last month.
“I expressed very clearly the concerns of our veterans community, and Mr. Musk was explicitly clear that we will make sure that we have no degradation of the benefits for our veterans,” Van Orden said.
“It doesn’t have to be an acrimonious relationship,” he added. “He’s a very, very sophisticated guy that understands that there are some things that we need to do being at a 30,000 foot level.”
Mast, however, said Musk was not involved in the cuts at the VA, telling reporters “DOGE was not in charge of firing, from my understanding.”
But the meeting was largely positive and complimentary of the effort, members said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who chairs a DOGE subcommittee in the House, gushed about how Musk’s effort potentially found “hundreds of billions of dollars in savings.”
While the DOGE effort has flaunted saving billions by canceling federal contracts, it has dealt with errors in accounting the reported savings and erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, the New York Times reported this week, resulting in the project altering or erasing billions of dollars it claimed to save and dramatically lowering the projected savings.
Asked about accounting errors by DOGE, Greene said: “You’re not showing me any evidence, so I can’t really comment on that. I’d have to look at it on paper and see it in detail.”
