Republicans love Elon Musk’s plans to slash government spending. But they’re not quite as thrilled at how a set of unelected bureaucrats is carrying it out — or how those new staffers are defying Senate-confirmed cabinet secretaries in the process.
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved foreign aid programs he deemed critical to American interests, two Department of Government Efficiency employees canceled the spending instead. The Washington Post reported that those DOGE employees have access to the payment system and manually blocked the funding, including money for Ukraine and HIV treatment programs — prompting pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“I have problems with that. I have problems that they have access to that,” Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, told NOTUS on Wednesday on his way into a DOGE-affiliated subcommittee hearing.
“If it was a mistake, I get it,” Burchett added. “But if it wasn’t, they need to be fired.”
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DOGE still has plenty of capital with congressional Republicans. But some lawmakers are growing antsy watching the ongoing turf war between Musk’s cost-cutting enthusiasts and Senate-confirmed cabinet secretaries. Members told NOTUS they want to see cabinet secretaries calling the shots on funding in the departments they lead.
“Now that Marco is confirmed and in place, there should be nobody in the administration — outside of the president of the United States or at the direction of the president — that should pause, delay or cancel anything Marco thinks is in our best national interest,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said.
When asked about The Post’s report, the State Department referred NOTUS to recent comments from Rubio that he had approved 250 such waivers so far. But the spokesperson did not answer if that money had made it through the payment system as of Wednesday afternoon.
Tillis theorized the logistical mess was “a natural consequence of a lot of cooks in the kitchen.”
Either way, he said, “I consider Marco Rubio to be the head chef.”
Other Republicans similarly backed Rubio and Trump’s other cabinet secretaries.
“I’m supportive of PEPFAR. I’m supportive of Secretary Rubio,” Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas said.
“I think they’re going to assert their independence,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of cabinet secretaries.
Still, it’s not clear who will come out on top: Musk or the cabinet secretaries. Musk certainly has Trump’s support.
“ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON,” the president wrote on Truth Social ahead of his first cabinet meeting, which Musk attended.
Other programs that Musk disagrees with have seen their congressionally approved funding halted through the Treasury Department’s payment system.
The Treasury Department abruptly stopped funding for the National Endowment for Democracy this month, which was created by Congress decades ago and still funded by Congress each year. Lawmakers from both parties support the organization for its work promoting human rights and democracy around the globe. Musk, though, has called it a “SCAM.”
As of Tuesday, the organization still hadn’t received its payments. A spokesperson for the National Endowment for Democracy said these funds “sustain nearly all of its grantmaking and operations.”
“As a result, for the first time in the organization’s four-decade history, it has been unable to meet its obligations and has been forced to suspend support for nearly 2,000 partners worldwide,” the spokesperson said.
Even if congressional Republicans want to see Rubio and other cabinet secretaries stand up to DOGE, they have largely been willing to hand their power of the purse to Musk. Some Republicans defended DOGE when asked about the foreign aid kerfuffle.
“I appreciate their efforts,” Sen. Ron Johnson said. And Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told NOTUS he wasn’t familiar with the details, but he believed any miscommunication may simply have been because “there’s a lot going on at the same time.”
Lawmakers may start to push back more forcefully if the funding freezes last — but many Republicans are willing to give Trump and Musk deference for more than just a few months.
“I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt, three weeks in, to the president, who is given the authority under the Constitution to administer the dollars,” said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. “If four years go by, or, say a year, and there’s something that we appropriated to accomplish objective acts under the law, and that was being somehow ignored or flouted, then Congress would need to look at that.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.
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