Republican senators roll out DOGE budget proposals for Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'

Fox News

a day ago

EXCLUSIVE: A group of DOGE-minded lawmakers is rolling out a series of budget proposals to add to the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act narrowly passed by the House.
The effort, led by Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman Joni Ernst, will include several major proposals forged by Republicans from both chambers, seeking to help offset trillions in extant government spending.
While a $9.4 billion rescissions package, a formal request from the executive branch to codify its DOGE cuts, is in the works, proponents of the Senate DOGE package say their total estimated savings would accentuate that and also surpass it in value.
"We have a 'big, beautiful' opportunity to reduce reckless spending and save billions of dollars," Ernst told Fox News Digital Thursday.
"Defunding welfare for politicians, stopping bogus payments and ending unemployment for millionaires are just the start of my commonsense solutions to continue rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Washington has lived high on the hog for far too long, and now is the time to tighten the belt," the Senate DOGE chairwoman added.
Senate DOGE addendums to the Big Beautiful Bill Act during negotiations will include a plan from Ernst called the ELECT Act, which she said claws back hundreds of millions of dollars treated as "welfare for politicians."
While $320 million from the fund was diverted to the Secret Service last year, the current $17 million sitting in the account is expected to rise to the $400 million it typically sat at by the end of the year, Fox News Digital has learned.
Partnered in that first piece of the DOGE package is also language stripping former presidents of certain perks like additional taxpayer-funded office space and non-security-related staff.
More than a dozen Senate Republicans also signed onto that portion of the package.
"The federal government must be held accountable for every tax dollar spent," said co-sponsor Mike Lee of Utah.
House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., also contributed to the package. The Senate version of his DOGE in Spending Act will be included in Senate negotiations.
That portion requires any government expenditure to be accompanied by a tangible record to be provided to the Treasury after DOGE found $160 billion in taxpayer funds being distributed without an identification code or in a fraudulent manner.
"The American people deserve a government that is efficient, accountable and fiscally responsible. That's why the House successfully advanced DOGE reforms through reconciliation that will safeguard America's financial future," Bean told Fox News Digital.
"I encourage the Senate to build on the work we've done in the House to deliver lasting fiscal responsibility to the American people."
Other pieces of the Senate's DOGE package include ending what proponents call "unemployment for millionaires," disqualifying people earning more than $1 million per year who lose their jobs from any unemployment support.
More than $271 million had been disbursed to that bloc between 2021-2023, proponents said.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is leading the Protecting Taxpayers' Wallet Act in the lower chamber. The bill's language, which ends taxpayer-funded union time when government workers negotiate their contracts while on the clock, will be included in the Senate DOGE package.
Another portion will compel the sale of six unused or underutilized federal buildings in Washington, D.C., that lawmakers say would free up $400 million in savings annually.
The final portion will "snap back inaccurate SNAP payments," Ernst said.
The effort will work to identify errors, force collection of overpayments to SNAP recipients and hold states with high levels of their own payment inaccuracies accountable for their negligence.
In 2023, approximately $11 billion in SNAP funds were overpaid, but the package's authors noted individual errors of $54 or less aren't included in the tally.
Democrats have been critical of DOGE efforts and the separate rescissions package. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Fox News Thursday a successful version of the latter hasn't passed since the first Bush administration.
"Congress' role in setting spending would be done away with, so this first rescission should be defeated," he said.