House takes up DOGE cuts amid Trump-Musk feud fallout
House Republicans this week will vote on codifying billions of dollars of cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), days after the profound — and very public — breakup between President Trump and Elon Musk, the force behind the cost-cutting agency.
The $9.4 billion package claws back funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS, among other areas targeted by DOGE.
Some Republicans have expressed reservations with various parts of the bill, raising questions about its fate in the House. Also this week, the House will vote on a bill to classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I.
Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans are working to finalize changes to the 'big, beautiful bill,' as party leaders aim to send the package to President Trump by July 4. Some committees may begin to roll out text this week.
Additionally, a flurry of cabinet secretaries will visit Capitol Hill this week to answer questions about the president's fiscal year 2026 budget request.
House Republicans are plowing ahead with their first attempt at codifying DOGE cuts this week, planning a vote on the Rescissions Act of 2025, which would rescind $9.4 billion in federal funding.
The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on the measure on Tuesday at 2 p.m., tee-ing up the legislation for the week.
'We're gonna codify the DOGE cuts, you'll see that in a series of actions here in the House,' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Friday. 'We got the first rescissions package this week, we'll be passing it early next week, that DOGE cuts, there'll be more of that to come.'
Not all Republicans, however, are on board with the legislation: A handful of lawmakers have voiced concerns with different provisions in the measure, leaving leadership with some work to do before the bill hits the floor.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), for example, has expressed opposition to clawing back funding for U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, which was established during the George W. Bush administration. The congressman said leadership has assured him they are not gutting the entire program, but instead cutting 'weird appendages off.'
'I talked to the whip team, I'm on the whip team, I said if it's gonna be cutting all of PEPFAR, I'm a no,' Bacon told reporters on Friday.
The effort comes days after the blistering feud between Trump and Musk, which began as a back-and-forth over the party's tax cuts and spending package before quickly turning into a personal fight — severing ties between the world's most powerful man and the richest person on the planet.
'I would assume so, yeah,' Trump told NBC News in an interview on Saturday when asked if he thought his relationship with the brainchild of DOGE was over.
Senate Republicans this week are continuing work on the 'big, beautiful bill,' as party leaders push to meet their self-imposed deadline of enacting the package by July 4.
Committees are expected to start rolling out text throughout the week as the chamber nears a vote on the sprawling legislation.
There are still a number of key debates that must be adjudicated before the package can squeak through. Some conservatives are still pushing for steeper spending cuts, while a cadre of moderates are calling for a less aggressive rollback of green-energy tax credits Democrats approved in 2022.
'The spending cuts are not nearly enough,' Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told 'Fox News Sunday' of the bill. The Kentucky Republican has also expressed opposition to the $4 trillion debt limit increase included in the measure.
Perhaps one of the most contentious questions is what to do about the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. Moderate House Republicans from high-tax blue states negotiated with their leadership to include a $40,000 SALT deduction cap in the bill — up from the $10,000 deduction cap in current law — a provision they say must remain in-tact to earn their vote when the package returns to the House.
Senate Republicans, however, are pushing to lower that number. With zero Republicans representing states that are impacted most by the SALT deduction cap — New York, New Jersey and California — the language is at risk of changing.
'No, and it shouldn't survive,' Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said on 'Fox News Sunday' when asked if he thinks the $40,000 SALT deduction cap survives in the Senate. 'We should not be subsidizing blue state governors' wasteful spending. That's exactly what, if that's in there, then Florida will be paying for…the state government of New York, and that's wrong.'
House Republicans in the SALT Caucus are warning that if their deal is tampered with in the Senate, they will not support the package when it returns to the House.
'If the Senate changes the SALT deduction in any way, I will be a no, and I'm not going to buckle on that,' Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said on CNN's 'Inside Politics' on Sunday. 'And I know in speaking to my other colleagues, they will be a no as well.'
The House this week is slated to vote on a bill that would permanently categorize fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act, classifying the opioid as having high abuse potential that is not allowed to be used medically.
The legislation — dubbed the HALT Fentanyl Act — passed the Senate on a bipartisan 84-16 vote in March, sending the measure to the House for consideration.
The lower chamber is expected to approve the measure: In February, the House passed its own version of the bill in a bipartisan 312-108 vote.
Consideration of the Senate-passed bill in the House this week marks the latest example of Republicans cracking down on the spread and use of fentanyl, which has been a key focus of the GOP-controlled Congress in addition to the Trump White House.
'House Republicans are doing everything in our power to stop fentanyl from claiming more American lives – everyone should support our efforts to halt this deadly crisis,' the office of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote in its floor lookout.
A number of cabinet secretaries are scheduled to appear before committees on both sides of the Capitol this week, as they field questions about their agencies and the White House's budget request for fiscal year 2026.
Other hot topics — including Trump deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles, the state of the economy, and the Trump-Musk feud — will likely come up during the hearings.
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