Washington Wednesday: DOGE in practice

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 11th of June.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

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Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Today, putting spending cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency into law.

MAST: But first, the Supreme Court weighs in on two cases related to DOGE.

Although Elon Musk has left Washington, the department he built remains and still faces a host of legal challenges.

Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: On Friday, the Supreme Court sided with DOGE in two appeals cases.

In the first, a left-leaning watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued DOGE because it would not comply with Freedom of Information Act requests. Commonly called FOIA, the law allows citizens to request internal documents at certain agencies.

CUILLIER: It's important we see what our government's up to. That's the whole point of the Freedom of Information Act.

David Cuillier is the director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Center at the University of Florida. He says that while some government entities, such as the Defense Department, Congress, and the White House, are exempt from FOIA, DOGE should not be.

CUILLIER: When the government's making important decisions that affect our lives, that affect our taxes, that affect the services we receive, then we're entitled to see what's going on.

DOGE claims that it is not a federal agency, but simply an advisory group.

The justices decided DOGE does not need to comply with FOIA while the case goes back to a lower court for more legal discovery with a narrower focus.

Next, the Court overturned an injunction that blocked DOGE from accessing Social Security Administration data. That includes bank information, medical records, and social security numbers. The unsigned order said DOGE employees may continue to access the information so that they can do their jobs while the attorneys continue fighting lawsuits in court.

The decisions raise new questions about DOGE’s work going forward, especially now that special government employee Elon Musk is no longer at the helm. I asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about it in a recent briefing.

LUMETTA: Is there a DOGE leader taking the place of Mr. Musk?

LEAVITT: Well, again, the DOGE leaders are each and every member of the President's cabinet, and the President himself who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from our government.

There is no public org-chart for DOGE, but a budget request for 2026 asks for funds for 30 employees and 120 staffers who can be embedded as DOGE liaisons within other departments.

DOGE employees have accessed computer systems, email accounts, and datasets at every level of government to identify how money is being spent. But staffers have also sent emails to fire federal employees and cancel contracts. That could mean they serve more than an advisory role. And members of President Trump’s cabinet want to see DOGE further embedded in the federal government. Here’s Office of Budget and Management Director Russ Vought in a House Appropriations hearing last week.

VOUGHT: I think the vision for DOGE is in addition to having some of the consulting work that they've done is that DOGE would go and be far more institutionalized at the actual agency. So many Doge employees are at the agencies working uh almost as in-house consultants as a part of the agency's leadership. And I think the leadership of DOGE is now much more decentralized.

While the Trump administration works to make DOGE more concrete, legal challenges remain. On Monday, a federal judge in New York said that the Office of Personnel Management improperly gave DOGE access to federal employee documents. The court will consider next steps on Thursday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

MAST: While DOGE has the legal greenlight to continue its work identifying ways to clean up government spending, it’s up to Congress to put those cuts into law. So far, DOGE’s website touts an estimated $180 billion in savings. This week, the House of Representatives takes up a bill dealing with the first $9 billion of those cuts.

EICHER: Here now with more is Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO: This isn’t the first time President Trump has sought to claw back spending already appropriated by Congress. In 2018, the White House asked Congress to rescind nearly $15 billion across the government. The House of Representatives approved it, but the bill ultimately failed in the Senate.

This time, President Trump is starting with a smaller package, $8.3 billion in reductions from foreign aid programs and $1.1 billion in reductions to funding for Public Broadcasting.

On Thursday, the House will vote to make those cuts official.

For lawmakers like Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina, it’s a key part of fulfilling Republican promises to cut government spending.

NORMAN: We need a lot more to get this country back on the financial track, which I think we will.

BRICENO: But as far as this Congress goes, do you know if the Speaker expects to have a rescission package a month, or—

NORMAN
Hopefully every two weeks.

BRICENO: Really?

NORMAN: Yes sir.

BRICENO: That seems really optimistic. Is that something the President—

NORMAN: We have to aim high, but this is the first step. Let’s see how this goes.

Rescission packages are special types of bills that fast track consideration of a spending reduction. At the president’s request, these bills allow lawmakers to more easily undo spending that’s already passed Congress and become law. Instead of the 60-vote threshold normally needed to break a filibuster, rescissions can pass in the senate with just 50 votes. And right now, Republicans have 53.

But even with the expedited measures, the process can take a while.

BEAN: It’s like walking on a walker. It's much slower than you want to go, but it does get you there eventually.

That’s Congressman Aaron Bean of Florida, chair of the House DOGE caucus. He recently got his knee reconstructed, so he’s on a walker himself—heard there taking the elevator instead of the House’s marble staircase.

The $9 billion dollar figure up for consideration in the House is a fraction of the cuts DOGE has identified So where’s the rest?

Well, not all of the $180 billion in DOGE cuts will require Congress’ approval.

Here’s Georgia Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Greene.

GREENE: Some of those are grants and contracts and those are things that Congress has nothing to do with. Those are grants and contracts that the departments themselves actually sign and hand out.

The rest won’t come all at once. Congressman Bean says they’ll consider it a bite at a time.

BEAN: I like little singles every week. I want a rescission package—if it were up to me—I would take a rescission package every week. We should be voting every week to cut. But listen, I understand the Big Beautiful Bill has consumed—and still is consuming—all the oxygen. So once we get that out of the way, then we can focus like a laser on making additional cuts.

Another rule for this ground game, the expedited power only applies to the cuts the president specifically asks for.

BEAN: That’s, the whole rescission package has to come from the White House and they have to do it. So I’m gonna, I’ve been with Russ, with Secretary Besant with all of them begging for the last nine months, ‘Hey give us a package.’ but again, everyone has been occupied.

And with everyone occupied with nomination hearings and budget reconciliation, lawmakers want to make sure they hit the timing right for a rescissions bill. Congresswoman Greene explains what happens when the President makes his request.

GREENE: It starts a 45 day clock. And that’s because of the rules in the Senate.

If the clock runs out and the Senate does not pass it in time, the easier hurdle of a simple majority vote expires, and the bill has to go through the normal 60-vote process.

GREENE: That’s why they’re being really careful to, okay, we got to make sure that ‘well, we know it’ll pass the House but we got to make sure the Senate is capable of taking it up and passing it.’”

The Senate’s 45-day clock isn’t the only threat to rescissions. Some House Republicans aren’t sold on everything that’s in this package.

BACON: So I think, we’ve got time to talk with leadership on it.

Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon says he wants to slow down and unpack the cuts to public broadcasting services. He’s also concerned about cuts to PEPFAR,a George W. Bush-era program that combats AIDs internationally.

BACON: Well, I feel better about PEPFAR because last week it was being reported was a 100% cut. It's 8% cut and they’re protecting all the medicine, all the medical care. Yeah. So, I feel better about that but I’m going to work with some of my colleagues on the PBS/NPR stuff. And I’ll leave it at that for the time being.

So far, Bacon is the only Republican to publicly voice concerns, and Speaker Johnson hopes it stays that way.

Depending on how this first package fares, it will be up to President Trump to get the ball moving on the rest of the DOGE cuts.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno, in Washington, DC.

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