Congress
DOGE efforts should be counted alongside megabill’s cost-cutting, Thune says
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he plans to use the cuts undertaken by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative as he tries to get Republican fiscal hawks on board with a budget blueprint paving the way for a massive party-line tax, border and energy bill.
The strategy, confirmed in a brief interview Tuesday, comes as Senate GOP leaders face a growing challenge in convincing a handful of conservatives members who want to go beyond the $2 trillion in cuts contained in the House budget framework.
“In the end, a lot of our folks who want to see a more aggressive approach to that realize that there are political considerations, and it’s all [about] what you can get the votes for,” Thune said.
Thune said that in addition to the massive domestic policy bill, “hopefully we’ll get other opportunities to” cut spending, naming DOGE as one of “a lot of good opportunities to get our country on a more sustainable fiscal path.“
Asked if the DOGE cuts could help sell a deal to conservatives, Thune said, “Anything that complements efforts to demonstrate that we are making serious headway in reducing spending and getting the deficit and debt control is going to be progress. So however we get there, we want to get there.”
Senate Republicans haven’t aligned internally — much less with the House — on how deeply they want to cut spending. Even as Thune deals with demands from his right for more sweeping cuts, he’s got concerns in other corners of his conference that the House blueprint would require politically unpopular cuts to Medicaid.
The DOGE cuts aren’t expected to be a part of the final party-line megabill. But GOP senators, including Thune allies, have previously suggested that they could be included in the overall accounting showing fiscal hawks that Republicans won’t be adding to federal budget deficits.
Many Senate Republicans are pushing President Donald Trump to send them a so-called “rescissions” package — one that would allow Congress to vote on codifying Musk’s work.
While some Republicans doubt Trump will do so while his administration fights to defend DOGE’s work in court, Trump himself told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he supported the idea of rescissions: “That would be great. I think we’re going to do that,” he said.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) declined to respond directly Wednesday to Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to denounce his former son-in-law Rep. Max Miller over abuse accusations leveled by Moreno’s daughter: “These aren’t accusations in my world,” he said.
“In my world, this is the reality,” Moreno told reporters at the Capitol. “This is not something that is theoretical to me. This is my lived reality of my daughter and my family every single solitary day.”
In an interview with Dasha Burns for Blue Light News’s The Conversation, Johnson declined to take sides in the dispute between Miller (R-Ohio) and Emily Moreno. He called for a House Ethics probe to “play out.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s expected choice for Army chief of staff faces resistance that could imperil his confirmation, according to the chair of the panel that needs to approve it.
Senate Armed Services head Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Wednesday that he was aware of “some opposition within the committee” to acting Army chief of staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve taking the job on a permanent basis.
LaNeve, previously Hegseth’s senior military aide, was confirmed as Army vice chief of staff in January. But he has also served as acting chief of staff since April when Hegseth forced out popular Gen. Randy George, a move that drew widespread criticism from lawmakers in both parties.
Wicker said he was “not able to predict right now” if lawmakers could address concerns about LaNeve. He did not specify whether the concerns were raised by Republicans, but GOP resistance is likely given that nominees could advance through the committee on a party-line vote.
LaNeve has only held the position of four-star general for six months, an anomaly for the the senior most Army officer.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about Republican opposition to LaNeve, citing Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) concerns about his lack of experience at the four-star rank.
Ernst, in an interview, did not dispute that she was the source of the holdup. But she called it a moot point as President Donald Trump has not yet formally nominated LaNeve to the position. And she disputed reports that LaNeve’s lack of experience was the sticking point.
“I don’t think that time and grade has anything to do with leadership ability, so I don’t know how that came about, honestly.” she said. “That’s not what I’ve told anyone.”
If the opposition continues, Trump could decide to leave LeNeve in the acting position indefinitely.
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