Washington
Cnn
–
The Republicans of Congress publicly project that they are by virtue of the way the president Donald Trump And Elon Musk tries to reduce the federal workforce.
But below the surface, some GOP legislators care about the effort to usurp the control of the congress on the Federal Stocks of the Stock Exchange. And they are dealing with a deluge of calls for worried voters and federal workers who are looking for their elected officials to obtain answers.
Some act, testing the waters for what a new era of perspective looks like in a second term Trump.
The GOP representative, Don Bacon du Nebraska, who supports the idea of auditing the federal government, asked the Trump administration to move by line through the American agency for financing international development and has pushed to preserve programs that serve national security interests in the country.
“Instead of getting rid of everything, let’s look at it selectively,” said Bacon. “Do not throw the baby with bath water.”
Even if Bacon supports the idea of closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the last administration agency unilaterally Closed, he argued that Trump could not finally usurp the congress.
“The congress must make up for the president’s plan or plan must be revised. Because the law is the law, ”said Bacon. “We must follow the law. If there are things that we must redirect, let us do it in the constitutional way. »»
Congress creditors consider the deadline for the financing of the government next month as a key opportunity to plead for the programs they wish to continue to be funded while applying the cuts made by the administration. The representative of the GOP Mario Diaz-Balart from Florida, who chairs the subcommittee of the Chamber which oversees the funding of the USAID, argued that the congress always has an important role to play.
“We always have the power of the handbag, and I zealously protect the power of the bag,” he told CNN.
The GOP representative, Zach Nunn of Iowa, who heard several federal workers from his district, opened files and contacted the White House and the relevant agencies to defend their name.
“We were very clear that the headache with the federal bureaucracy largely lies in the region of the national capital,” said Nunn about his conversations with the Trump administration. “Most of the people we have in Iowa are front -line workers who serve people in our community.”
Some Republicans take the question from the front by sitting in private with representatives of the largest federal union of employees this week, including representatives of Gop Pete Stauber in Minnesota and Pete Sessions of Texas.
Stauber, a former police officer, told CNN that he maintained to make government more effective, but he recognized that there were light points on his workforce.
“You are not going to see this member demonize federal workers. I was one of them, “he said. “My wife was one of them. I know a lot of good solid workers. But you can’t tell me that we cannot become more effective. This is the goal.
Sessions co-directs a caucus which supports the effort of the Ministry of Elon Musk government and largely supports the cuts made. But he said that his message to the federal workers he met on Tuesday will be: “I could have done it differently.”
Utah’s Gop Blake Moore’s representative also tries to connect with federal workers, telling CNN that he had listened to their concerns during a recent town hall in his district.
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“We have to do a better job to bring them instead of disseminating them,” said Moore about his message to his voters.
The GOP senator, Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, a former doctor, told CNN that he communicated with the universities of his state on the way in which the cuts proposed at the National Institutes of Health could considerably harm their research capacities.
“I am in active conversations with people at home. And that’s a problem, “said Cassidy.
Stopping to explain the next steps, he added: “As a rule, I try to understand the problems before making recommendations.”
Many Republicans are still in darkness on changes or cuts that occur and use rear channels to be clarity before taking measures.
“We are just trying to get answers to people, we try to get answers ourselves,” said GOP representative Andrew Garbarino.
Meanwhile, the senator from Gop Susan Collins of Maine was more direct in her opposition to various cuts than Trump and Musk tried to make. She publicly criticized the administration’s mandate to freeze federal aid which was ultimately canceled, And she published a statement on Monday defending the NIH cups. Collins said that she had spoken to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who, according to him, assured him that he would “re -examine” the initiative as soon as he is confirmed to lead the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
While legislators take individual measures, republican leaders have remained aligned with the president. The chamber president Mike Johnson bypassing questions last week to find out if Trump can close the federal agencies without congresses and if Trump should ignore the orders of the judges. And the head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, said that the courts will play “the important role” of the resolution of the differences between co-equal and legislative branches instead of weighing directly.
And most Republicans echo their leadership on Trump and Musk’s efforts, the latest example of how the party fell online behind Trump even when the president’s actions directly have contested Congress authority.
“I am not a lawyer. I am a pilot, “said GOP representative, Jack Bergman from Michigan when he was asked if Trump had the power to unilaterally close the agencies. “So if you want to tell me about aviation, I’ll tell you about it. But when he enters the legal side of things, let’s leave the lawyer’s debate. “”
However, while a substantial concentration of the federal workforce lies in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, at least 80% of federal employees work elsewhere in the country, according to the staff management office.
This means that letters to federal employees urged them to resign now and be paid until September, and freezing by the Trump administration of federal funds or the restructuring of government agencies, have palpable impacts beyond the simple Beltway .
“If it was a democratic administration with the same things that were going on, people would be enlightened,” GOP legislator told CNN. “So I think we have to pay attention to the previous one they define.”
The president has campaigned to reduce the size of the federal government, and the Republicans say that the actions taken now are simply to make his campaign promises.
The representative of the Gop Jen Kiggans, who has Over 30,000 Civilian federal workers in her district of Virginia, CNN told that she had not seen the delayed resignation offers but urged her voters to be patient.
“I think everyone must take a deep inspiration. I know there are a lot of changes right now. This is the change for which the Americans voted in November. So we are in a transition period and if people have specific questions, please contact us, “said Kiggans.
GOP REP. Darrell Issa, who has Nearly 15,000 Civilian federal workers in his district in California told CNN that its voters wanted the Republicans to contract the debt of 35 billions of dollars.
“They want us to deal with it, and we do it and the president of the president,” said Issa. “My federal workers are also taxpayers, and even if they wanted to preserve their work, they will be the first to tell me that they are tired of going to a post office with sneaky attitudes, bad delivery and nothing Show it. ”
A representative of the Federal Workers’ Syndicate told CNN that they pushed the Republican legislators to act behind the scenes: “We want them to go out for us, but we know the situation in which they are with President Trump. I think they will work behind the scenes with us and convince President Johnson not to do certain things. »»
Ruark Hotopp, national vice-president of the US Federation of Government employees, ordered its unionized federal workers to contact each Midwest region’s Congress office it represents. Hotopp, who organized its members to meet various legislators this week, explained that the republican offices they called are sympathetic to a certain point.
“Our question is back to them – what are you going to do about it?” And right now, the answer is apparently nothing, ”said Hotopp.
Morgan Rimmer and Haley Talbot of CNN contributed to this report.