Senate "Far From" Meeting Elon Musk's Cost Cutting Goals

Senators exited the first meeting of the newly formed DOGE Caucus on Thursday morning, attended by both Vivek Ramaswamy and multiple appropriators, with few details on what the so-called Department of Government Efficiency planned to do.

Sen.

Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said it was “way too early” to identify key priorities of the caucus and emphasized that it would be an ongoing effort through the four years of Trump’s administration. He did highlight the incoming GOP-led Senate's intentions to slash Biden administration regulations right at the start of the new Congress.

Since clinching Senate control, Republicans had been planning to utilize the Congressional Review Act to roll back what they call costly and unnecessary rules put in place by the Biden Administration. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to wipe out regulatory actions with a simple majority vote in both chambers — under a tight timeline.

"[We should] use the CRA effectively, like we did when President Trump first came into office, to rescind them,” said Tillis. “Because that has the benefit of getting rid of a costly, unneeded regulation, but it also prevents those agencies from ever promulgating something substantially similar in the future without an act of Congress.“

He called the regulatory rollbacks “the immediate thing we need to do,” but said the group is far from setting clear targets on the massive cost cutting goals set by Elon Musk and Ramaswamy, who are leading DOGE.

While Ramaswamy met with that…   group, Musk had a brief meeting with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune. He told reporters after that meeting: “We need to make sure we’re spending public money well," and said he wants to get rid of tax credits, including credits for electric vehicles.

Republican appropriators Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) attended the meeting, and Capito said she was “here to listen” as she walked in. While DOGE can make recommendations about spending, true cuts would almost certainly need to go through Congress.

“There's a lot of stuff we can do in the Article One branch, but you also need people inside these agencies that are committed to real reform,” said Sen.

Eric Schmidt (R-Mo.), referring to the article of the Constitution that established the legislative branch.