After facing blowback from constituents, several House Republicans are returning to Washington this week on a mission to demand both more information and a more considerate approach from the Elon Musk-led effort to downsize the government.
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., who was confronted during a testy town hall in his deep red district last week, said he plans to reach out to Musk and urge him to show more compassion amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s execution of federal budget cuts and layoffs.
McCormick also said he wants to use a previously scheduled meeting at the White House on Tuesday to “bend” President Donald Trump’s ear on the issue. The entire House Republican sophomore class is meeting with Trump on Tuesday, according to McCormick.
“If we have layoffs at the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], some people are going to be affected. The question is, do we give people time to adjust to their lives? And I think that’s my biggest concern, is that we’re being compassionate,” McCormick told NBC News.
“Ironically, the first time I ever met Elon Musk, he was asked, ‘What could Republicans do better?’ And his response was … ‘I think you guys could come across as more compassionate.’ So I’m going to use his own words when I talk to him.”
As Republicans have started to feel the heat from constituents who are impacted by the cuts and layoffs, some lawmakers have spoken out more publicly about DOGE and encouraged the Trump administration to use a more delicate approach. While they want to remain loyal to Trump, they also want to protect the voters who elected them to Congress.
Adding to the frustration: Congressional Republicans have been given little heads-up about DOGE’s moves, let alone given any sort of messaging guidance, which has at times left them flat-footed.
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., whose voters demanded answers about DOGE’s cost-cutting effort during a town hall last week, said he promised his constituents that he would try to get more information from the Trump administration about exactly what is being cut and who would be impacted.
“It would be better, I think, for members to have real specific information. Because we don’t have it. I don’t have it,” he told reporters. “We don’t know what they’re looking at, and we don’t know what the numbers are. … I’m learning about this when I see a broadcast as much as anyone else right now, because we haven’t been briefed on it.”
But other House Republicans brushed aside concerns about the contentious town halls.
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla, who faced tough questions about federal budget cuts during an event in his district last week, said his constituents are still supportive of DOGE’s broader mission, but have an issue with Musk.
“I’ve not heard anyone say they don’t want to cut anything. It’s just that they don’t like Elon. That it’s,” Hern told NBC News. “We’re moving forward with the cuts.”
Hern added that he’s “sticking” with his support of DOGE, despite the concerns from some of his constituents, but will continue to hear them out.
“We’re continuing to move forward. We’ll continue to answer questions. I took questions for over an hour from my constituents back home last week, and y’all listen, we represent everybody. I’m gonna take questions,” Hern said. “But I still think the right thing to do is to get our government under control. We’re $37 trillion in debt and growing. It’s not gonna get better if we keep doing same thing the same way we’ve always done it.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., said that he was “not surprised” by the crowded event he had with constituents Monday morning in Missouri where voters expressed concerns about federal workers losing their jobs and actions by DOGE.
“The unfortunate thing was, is that this was organized protests, I think from some outside agitator groups,” he said. “There were some constituents there who I wanted to hear from, and I could not hear from them.”
Alford said that his “district is firmly behind what President Trump is doing and what DOGE is doing.”
He acknowledged “valid concerns about the speed that this is happening. But the ship heading towards a reef, we don’t have much time before we hit that reef with $36 trillion worth of debt.”
