Republican senators vented their concerns about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s aggressive approach to freezing federal spending and cutting government jobs during a private meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday.
Gathered in the historic Mansfield Room outside the Senate chamber, some GOP senators complained about what they view as a lack of transparency about what Musk and his team of engineers are doing at federal agencies.
They flagged cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which fired 1,400 employees Monday, and said Musk’s team hadn’t responded to their requests for information, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
“Every day’s another surprise,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of the daily bombshells from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“It would be better to allow Cabinet secretaries to carefully review their departments and then make surgical, strategic decisions on what programs and people should be cut and then come back to Congress for approval,” she said.
Collins argued a methodical approach to reforming government would be better than what she called Musk’s “sledgehammer approach.”
A second GOP senator said colleagues raised concerns about Musk’s leadership of DOGE and shared stories about how funding freezes and firings have impacted constituents.
“They were presenting some of the compelling stories and some of them shared about terminations at VA hospitals and how it impacted constituents and how there was no answer” from Musk’s team, the senator said.
“Another question was, ‘Who do we bring it to when we have these issues?’” the source added.
One of the Republican senators digging for answers is Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who told The Hill he’s trying to find out whether the firing of 2,400 probationary VA employees would impact services for veterans.
“We’re asking that question,” he said. “We want to know [what] positions [are affected]. We’ve been reassured that it doesn’t affect direct care, but we’re looking for more information.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is providing the committee that information, but we haven’t gotten everything that we’ve wanted,” he said.
Moran said he wants to hear from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) about which positions are being eliminated and how that will affect federal services and benefits.
Wiles acknowledged the GOP senators’ concerns and urged them to contact her directly if they have any problems as a result of Musk’s blitz through the federal workforce.
“She’s been very responsive,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said. “Some guys wanted to know, ‘OK, in regard to DOGE, who do you call in the Cabinet? Or should we call her?’”
Hoeven said Musk has brought in a team of engineers who are “coming in and finding things” to cut at various federal agencies, “but they’re not communicators.”
“She recognizes that she and the agencies need to coordinate with us to address the various issues that come up,” he said of Wiles’s message to Republican senators.
Musk on Wednesday dominated the spotlight at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, defending his email demanding all federal workers report their accomplishments.
Though Musk is not technically a member of Trump’s Cabinet, the president recognized the billionaire to speak first and let him express himself at length.
At one point Trump interjected, “Elon, let the Cabinet speak just a second.”
Musk spoke to Trump’s departmental leaders shortly after OMB and OPM circulated a memo instructing agencies to conduct a governmentwide reduction in force and to report their plans for mass layoffs by March 13.
Some Republican senators say Musk needs to step back and let Trump’s Cabinet officials take the lead in deciding whether layoffs are consistent with their other priorities.
And they want more information about how Musk and his team are going about their effort to reshape the federal workforce.
“I think it’s always going to help if we’re going to get more information on the method,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who noted that some of his GOP colleagues plan to visit the White House on Thursday to learn more about DOGE.
“I do think briefings help us,” he added.
Tillis said Musk and DOGE should serve as advisers to Trump’s Cabinet officials instead of taking the lead on major policy decisions themselves.
“We’re talking about governmental entities, a lot of complexity. That’s why I believe that DOGE will most likely morph into being an adviser to these Senate-confirmed heads of agencies fairly soon,” he said. “Otherwise, I just have a real problem.
“If I get confirmed as the head of an agency, a Cabinet-level position, [and] I’ve got somebody else that is pretending — or that is acting as my boss, that’s a real problem,” he added. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to have all those employees thinking that you’re looking out for the agencies and their best interests.”
Tillis said that if Trump’s Cabinet officials “want to be viewed as the heads of these agencies,” they need to balance Musk’s recommendations to cut staff with their missions to provide services and advance U.S. interests.
“They need to say, ‘This is all good stuff, but now it has to go into the context of everything else I’m doing to run this agency, not just efficiencies.’ Because you’ve still got to keep the lights on, you’ve still got to provide acceptable service levels for the people that you’re tasked with serving,” he said.
Some Republican senators note they’re hearing complaints from constituents who are alarmed about the potential freezing of federal grants or losing their jobs.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday urged Musk to treat federal workers “respectfully.”
“I think that any process you undergo where you’re trying to find efficiencies, if that involves reductions in force, it needs to be done in a respectful way, obviously respectful of the people involved,” he told reporters.
