WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick says he's on board with President Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's efforts to overhaul the federal government — moves the administration says target waste and abuse of taxpayers' money but that have sparked protests about a "billionaire takeover" and inspired Sen. John Fetterman to raise alarms of "chaos and confusion."

McCormick, a freshman Republican senator, told the Post-Gazette in an interview that Trump campaigned on "shaking up Washington, reducing the budget and the expenses of the federal government, reining in the bureaucracy in terms of rogue bureaucrats driving regulation and ... progressive ideology that has hijacked some of the institutions."

"That was the promise," he said. "And I think what (the Department of Government Efficiency) and Elon Musk are doing is trying to deliver on that promise."

Still, McCormick said the administration "can't do dumb things."

A handful of Republican lawmakers have reportedly expressed concerns about civil service cutbacks, cuts to the National Institutes of Health, and potential firings of probationary-period FBI agents and Department of Agriculture microbiologists combating the bird flu.

"You can't cut things that ultimately are critical to life-saving support or that would undermine our key strengths and research," McCormick said. "While ... I don't think you can do this incrementally and achieve what the president said he was going to do, you also have to have a process for exemptions and exceptions and so forth. So as we learn about some of the consequences of some of the big moves, people can be nimble and adjust. I think that's what's happening, and that's what we have to monitor."

Over the last few weeks, DOGE — without oversight from Congress — and the Trump administration have instigated court-challenged federal funding freezes, hiring freezes, buyouts, firings and resignations as they've claimed to target waste and abuse of tax dollars.

More than a dozen Democratic attorneys general have sued to challenge DOGE's "virtually unchecked power" and its access to sensitive data — including Americans' financial and personal information — as what's been characterized as Musk's team of young engineers and other political appointees in the administration seek to overhaul the makeup of the federal government and how it spends tax dollars and awards grants.

The administration has effectively undercut the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and has also taken aim at the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

The collective moves have incensed Democratic lawmakers and heightened concerns among a range of nonprofits, research universities and health care and social services providers who rely on federal funding.

"The DOGE mission resonated in (Pennsylvania)," Fetterman, D-Pa., wrote on X Monday. "I came at it with common sense and an open mind. For many it's causing chaos and confusion — which in my opinion, doesn't help DOGE."

The Democratic senator, who last month complimented Musk and his career achievements, specifically took issue with DOGE's potential access to private taxpayer data, arguing "rummaging through your personal (expletive)" does not save taxpayers money or make the government more efficient.

Musk had responded by posting an image of a spreadsheet purportedly showing "tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as 'alive' when they are definitely dead."

The exchange highlighted how Musk and DOGE — which is reportedly eyeing potential cuts at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Pentagon and NASA — have been frequent targets in recent weeks.

Musk is the world's richest man and Trump's largest individual campaign donor, at more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The White House has said Musk — who owns SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink — would recuse himself from potential conflicts of interest.

The Trump administration, however, fired several inspectors general — nonpartisan watchdogs charged with rooting out waste and fraud — including from agencies that were investigating Musk's companies.

At least eight of the inspectors general sued last week, asking a judge to declare the firings unlawful, the Associated Press reported. The Trump administration did not give Congress 30 days notice of the firings, which was required by law.

"We moved to subpoena Elon Musk — an unelected billionaire with massive conflicts of interest, a personal vendetta (and) access to our most sensitive financial systems. But Republicans blocked it," Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said on X last week.

During an Oversight Committee hearing, Lee said of the administration, "They are not trying to right-size the government. They're not trying to make things more efficient or improve services. They want to eliminate their competition."

"We're hearing a lot of talk about cutting government fraud, waste, and abuse. I'm all for that," Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, said in a recent post on X. "But I haven't seen any interest in cuts in the place where there is a heck of a lot of waste and price gouging — where they could get bipartisan buy-in from guys like me ... the Pentagon!"

Deluzio, a Navy veteran who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said that, "instead of going after consumer financial watchdogs that save the American people money, or sniffing around peoples' hard-earned Social Security or veterans' benefits, they ought to look at the rampant price gouging by defense contractors."

"Congress can't do anything except complain about it," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a press call Tuesday, according to RadioIowa. "I think we have to have sympathy and understanding for people that are laid off."

Grassley said, however, that it's within Trump's authority to determine who works for the executive branch.

During a news conference inside the Oval Office last week, Musk described DOGE's work as "common sense" and "not draconian or radical."

"The people voted for major government reform, and that's what the people are going to get," he said. "That's what democracy is all about."

He acknowledged that DOGE would make mistakes but pledged to fix them "very quickly." He also argued that the federal bureaucracy amounted to an unelected fourth branch of government that had "more power than any elected representative" — ironically a label similar to what Democrats have been saying about him and DOGE since Trump started his second administration.

DOGE on its website says it's saved $55 billion so far through a "combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes and regulatory savings."

On its X account last week, DOGE claimed to find hundreds of millions of dollars going to programs that have all "been canceled," including $10 million for "Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision," $19 million for "biodiversity conversation" in Nepal, $1.5 million for "voter confidence" in Liberia and more. The group says it's working to upload data on all the "savings" in a "digestible and fully transparent manner."

Pressed on the lack of oversight of DOGE from the Republican-controlled Congress, McCormick argued that "the entire initiative is designed to create transparency on spending."

A veteran and former treasury and national security official in the George W. Bush administration, McCormick said he supports foreign aid in promoting national security interests, including in combating China.

But he said DOGE had thus far shown that too much in the foreign aid budget was helping fund "all sorts of initiatives for advancing LGBTQ and (diversity, equity and inclusion) and other countries, that is completely out of line with what I think most taxpayers across the country and certainly in Pennsylvania would support."

But McCormick said he's "very focused on how this is affecting Pennsylvania," noting he's in touch with nonprofits and universities and other impacted organizations and services.

"I'm monitoring it very carefully," he said. "I want to support the president's goals and his initiatives, but I also want to make sure that if it's hurting Pennsylvanians, I know about it and we take corrective action."

A handful of Republicans — most anonymously — have reportedly raised concerns about the scope of Musk's role.

"There's no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk to go far beyond what I think is appropriate," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters last week.

On Monday, as court cases and lawmakers' comments denouncing Musk and DOGE continued to mount, a White House official said Musk wasn't even leading the group that Trump has said he's leading.

In a court filing in a case filed by Democratic attorneys general, a White House official said that the billionaire was "an employee in the White House Office," not "an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service," The New York Times reported.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who's in charge at DOGE and what Musk's specific role is.

"In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors," Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, said in his court declaration. "Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president's directives."

Trump and Musk have publicly criticized judges who have ruled against the administration's executive orders or funding freezes.

"This is a coup, plain and simple," Arizona's attorney general, Kris Mayes, said earlier this month.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced last week that even after multiple courts have ordered the Trump administration to release federal funds, state agencies still are unable to access at least $1.2 billion in congressionally appropriated federal funding. The funds go toward protecting public health, cutting energy costs, clean drinking water, creating jobs in rural communities and more, the governor said.

The state filed a lawsuit against the administration, with Shapiro saying he had "no choice but to pursue legal action to protect the interest of the commonwealth and its residents."

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