Congress
GOP senators expect White House to send spending cuts — eventually
A group of Senate Republicans left a meeting with top White House officials Thursday saying they are increasingly confident that President Donald Trump will send a package of spending cuts to Capitol Hill for lawmakers’ approval.
The senators, however, said they did not yet have a timeline for when the Trump administration might request what are known as rescissions — a process allowing Congress to claw back previously approved funding by a simple-majority vote in both chambers.
“Nothing happens until it’s done, but I believe we’ll have a rescissions package,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), adding that he has spoken frequently about it with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who was in the meeting with GOP senators on Thursday.
Vought declined to comment upon leaving the meeting.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso added that there was a “big appetite” among Republicans to rescind funding “abuses” identified by the White House, an apparent reference to efforts by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.
“That has to originate from the White House, and we’ve been meeting with White House officials about doing just that,” Barrasso said as he left the meeting.
The closed-door meeting comes after Senate Republicans pitched Musk personally on rescissions during a lunch earlier this month. Some senators have argued that having Congress vote on DOGE’s cuts could give them more staying power given the legal challenges the administration is facing over Musk’s work.
Still, some Republican senators believe the administration is in no hurry to send over a package of cuts, preferring to fight the DOGE battles in the courts first.
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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