Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole told constituents with concerns about government-slashing efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency that he’d been able to get it to change course when it set its sights on projects related to his district.
He said he’d been able to get results by flagging issues to DOGE like any other agency, adding that while it’s made “some mistakes” in its efforts to cut spending, it had reversed course in at least one instance when his office brought an issue to its attention.
“We’ve found, at least, if you work it just like you would any other government agency, they can be pretty responsive,” Cole said in his telephone town hall on Thursday.
He pointed to his staff working with DOGE to get a Social Security office in Lawton, Oklahoma, off of a list of terminated contracts — one of many that DOGE reversed course on. He also largely defended DOGE’s work.
Trending
“We think this is a bad decision,” Cole said his office told DOGE about potentially closing the Social Security office. “And [DOGE] relooked at it and they agreed so. But this is where members have to be pretty aggressive and engaged.”
The Atlantic reported Wednesday that Cole met with Elon Musk over cigars and bourbon and advised the Trump ally, who heads DOGE, to consult lawmakers before making cuts. Cole said Musk had committed to fixing any errors. “So far,” Cole told the magazine, “I’ve found them to be good to their word.”
Cole, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is one of several lawmakers elected to represent areas that President Donald Trump won who have faced questions from constituents this week about DOGE and the Trump administration’s efforts to expand executive power.
During his hour-long town hall, the majority of questions Cole faced from constituents were DOGE-related. Callers who said they were from Oklahoma brought up potential cuts to programs like Social Security and Indian Health Service. They also laid out concerns about federal office closures and layoffs.
Though the event wasn’t in person, the largely calm conversations Cole had were a tone shift from recent town halls held by Republicans — some of which caught enough attention that they resulted in the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee advising representatives to stop hosting town halls in person. Now, while Congress is in recess, representatives on both sides of the aisle are catching heat from constituents.
Cole didn’t receive the same arguing, shouting and heckling as some of his colleagues. But, most callers were still worried about DOGE.
“I’m very concerned about Congress’s constitutional duties, that those are being taken over by DOGE,” one caller told Cole. “I would like to know what steps you’re willing to take to make sure that the constitutional duties of Congress remain with Congress, and not with the executive branch.”
Cole had a response ready.
“I try to do it by pretty aggressively defending congressional power,” Cole responded. “I think there’s a lot of things out there that you hear that may or may not be true.” He used the example of Tinker Air Force Base, located in Oklahoma, where anticipated layoffs did not happen.
“We live in an extremely contentious time,” Cole said. “It’s a high degree of polarization and partisanship, but we also work together to get things done better than you may think. And so at the end of the day, I always just urge all of you to have confidence in the country’s institutions.”
—
Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and Oklahoma Watch.
Author
