This week saw the Supreme Court side with a federal judge who ruled that the Trump administration must spend $2 billion worth of foreign aid which had been frozen by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

That led a group of senators to tell Musk that his mission of reducing the size of government will require support from Congress. 

Senators say a recession package is needed

According to The Hill, that message was conveyed to Musk by Republican lawmakers during a lunch event on Wednesday afternoon.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was among those in attendance, and he spoke about the need for permanent legislative changes.

"To make it real, to make it go beyond the moment of the day, it needs to come back in the form of a rescission package," Paul was quoted as saying after the luncheon.

"I love all the stuff they’re doing, but we got to vote on it," the Kentucky lawmaker continued. "My message to Elon was: Let’s get over the impoundment idea and let’s send it back as a rescission package."

Lindsay Graham: "We should be doing it, like, yesterday"

"Then, what we have to do is get to 51 senators or 50 senators [to vote] to "to cut the spending," he stressed. "We talked a lot about, how do we make these things permanent. Rescission was a big part of the discussion."

Under the recission process, a president asks Congress for approval to cancel specific appropriations that have not yet been assigned for the purchase of goods or services.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham serves as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Chair, and he expressed similar support for a vote on DOGE's proposed cuts, saying, "Yes, yes, 100 percent, and we should be doing it, like, yesterday."

"You could do regulatory reform without us, but anything that doesn't fit within [budget] reconciliation has to be done through rescissions," he explained.

John Cornyn: "We could pass it with 51 votes here and a majority in the House"

The Hill noted that Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn also suggested that DOGE cuts could not be codified via the same reconciliation process that Republicans hope to use for border security, energy, and tax reforms.