With Elon Musk leaving his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are working swiftly to codify the spending cuts that the agency has made over the past few months.
President Donald Trump appointed Musk as a “special government employee” to lead DOGE at the beginning of his second term. Special government employees are positions appointed by the president that can only last up to 130 days. For Musk, those 130 days expire this week with Friday being his last day. He will still continue to serve as an unofficial adviser to Trump outside the administration.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk posted on X. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
The Trump administration now plans to send a first “rescissions package” to Congress as early as next week to codify into law $9.4 billion of cuts DOGE has identified. This bill would allow the administration to block funding that Congress has already allocated for the year. Congress will have 45 days to consider the bill before it is voided.
Cuts in the package include $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and $8.3 billion from foreign aid. The effort to defund CPB would hit taxpayer-funded media organizations such as NPR and PBS, while the effort to defund foreign aid would hit USAID and the scandal-rocked African Development Foundation.
“We want to make sure that Congress passes its first rescissions bill, and we will send more if they pass it,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought said on Fox Business. “And so, this is the first one. It’s foreign aid, USAID cuts, many of the waste and garbage that was funded – not only wasteful but hurting our foreign policy.”
Speaker Mike Johnson explained in a post on X that he will work to ensure the bill passes the House. He said that Musk and DOGE “have done INCREDIBLE work exposing waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government.”
After the White House sends Congress the rescissions package, the first order of business will be for the House to “act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts.” Johnson added that the House has built on DOGE’s work with the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the chamber passed last week. This is the reconciliation bill that includes much of Trump’s agenda.
“The House made sure to build on DOGE’s success within the One Big Beautiful Bill,” Johnson explained on X. “[White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller] has made an important point about the two efforts: DOGE found savings in discretionary spending (such as funding agencies), while our One Big Beautiful Bill secured over $1.6 trillion in savings in mandatory spending (such as Medicaid).”
DOGE has identified $175 billion in wasteful spending so far, amounting to $1,086.96 per taxpayer.
With Musk’s departure from the White House, Americans will be closely watching DOGE and Congress for continued movement on eliminating government waste. Musk was undoubtedly the driving force behind the movement. But as he said, the mission is far from over. The onus is now on Congress to ensure that the waste, fraud, and abuse DOGE identified does not creep back into federal agencies.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
So far, the vast majority of the GOP members of Congress have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to get anything done. Pretty much as expected given the nature of the professional political class that makes up almost all of Washington, D.C.
President Trump has been going 24×7 to deliver on what he promised in multiple areas under his direct control. Elon Musk and his DOGE team also have been very serious about finding the waste, fraud and abuse that is endemic in the areas of the federal government they have been allowed to inspect. Many areas of the federal government have fought back against allowing any sort of inspection of how they actually run.
So, we have a sharp contrast between how a properly functioning federal government should and could work in both Trump and Musk, and a glaring example of what we actually have in place today with how Congress has been performing. The GOP led Congress has of course been its usual slow walking, mindlessly bureaucratic self as they plod along doing the bare minimum as slow as they possibly can. It’s pretty clear that even amongst most Republican members of Congress, the emphasis is on maintaining the status quo of spending ever more taxpayer dollars, no matter how bad that status quo might be. The proof is of course how little they managed to agree on within the reconciliation bill beyond simply making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent. Which is of course absolutely vital to ensure we all aren’t slammed with a $4.5 trillion dollar tax hike come January 1st, 2026, were those cuts allowed to expire.
As for the recission bills, both the House and Senate could literally simply cut and paste the findings from DOGE into the recission bills, slap the usual congressional legalese on the header page and the rear summary pages and you’re 99% of the way done. This is NOT a heavy lift. However, if the reconciliation bill is any sort of guide, I expect what we will see in the recission bills coming out of Congress will be far short of what was actually identified by DOGE.
This article accentuates the need to elect more republicans to congress in the coming mid terms.
And as many of the comments preceding point out, it’s necessary to get fresh blood in the republican party. It’s time to primary the rhinos and replace them. That means we need to become more politically active, starting now.
I don’t think anyone expects anything from congress , least of all to stir itself to do it’s duty and do the work on behalf of people which they promised to do. When was the last time they’ve actually done it and when was the last time people actually demanded it? A concerned citizens would have turfed them out decades ago, but they are still there, senile or not. That is the root of the problem. Reactionary calling itself progressive.
Now, the waiting game begins. Will the Congress be jackrabbit or snail? Post your bets in Vegas. Time is not an ally for Pres. Trump as we all know that the Demos will put up a fight to dislodge this administration’s agenda.
& Expand DOGE More
With the savings from what DOGE found, cutting off Medicaid to illegals, cutting off the University and media funding, there is almost $1trillion. If Trump wants to spend $2.4trillion over 10 years, (which actually comes to $1.4trillion [$2.4trillion – $1trillion]), I don’t see much of an issue with that. Biden spent $6+trillion each year of his 4 years in office and no-one complained about that. This is truly TDS at its best.
Says you, the sheriff of nottingham!
From your previous postings I can picture you scurrying up a flag pole just to disrespect it!
So, DOGE “identifies” $175 billion in wasteful spending while the guy who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility cobbles together a “big beautiful bill”, that will raise spending (meaning borrowing) some $3 trillion dollars. That same guy that ran on a platform that included fiscal responsibility has now joined with Elizabeth Warren in calling for removing entirely the budget ceiling Congress is supposed to adhere to but seems to always slither over.
That pro fiscal responsibility candidate we all turned out like sheep to vote for also ran on a promise to cease all further supply of arms and munitions to the Nazi regime in Ukraine. Lets see how he oozes out of that campaign promise as well. His lying has already begun with his tired BS of “the war never would have started if I hadn’t been cheated out of the 2020 election”. If thats true then why did that candidate spend tens upon tens of billions supplying arms to and training those Ukrainian Nazis during his first term? Is he going to blame that on disobeying generals too? Maybe blame Bolton or Pompeo?
The BS is becoming unbearable. What we now have is a more coherent copy of Joe Biden.