Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been slashing government waste unlike anything that's ever happened in the history of the country.

According to The Hill, behind closed doors, Republican senators reportedly told Musk that he'll need to begin seeking congressional approval to continue shrinking the federal government. 

The meeting happened during a luncheon on Capitol Hill this week where Musk provided an updated on DOGE's progress in cutting multiple billions in government-related waste and overspending.

Clearly, senators in Washington D.C. are getting nervous about Musk's rampage, even though millions of Americans continue to support Musk's mission, under President Donald Trump, to shrink government waste to as small a number as possible.

What's going on?

The main issue, according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), is that while he supports Musk's mission with DOGE cuts, he's afraid the cuts will continue to meet stiff resistance in the courts, which has already happened at several levels.

He said Congress will have to codify the cuts in the form of a spending recession package.

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

"Then, what we have to do is get to 51 senators or 50 senators" to vote "to cut the spending," Paul added, according to The Hill. "We talked a lot about, how do we make these things permanent? Rescission was a big part of the discussion."

For example, he believes it's essential to go through Congress and use the power of the purse to codify the cuts. Paul pointed to a Supreme Court decision that rejected the Trump administration's decision to freeze billions in foreign aid.

Musk was reportedly open-minded about the idea, but ultimately didn't believe that Congress would need to get involved.

The Hill noted:

Paul and other Republican senators said Musk appeared open to the idea but didn’t seem to expect DOGE’s cuts and workforce reductions would need to come back to Congress for ultimate approval.

Others agree

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), agreed with Paul on how the cuts should be made.

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

Only time will tell if Trump, Musk and DOGE play ball with Congress or continue to do it on their own and risk a roller coaster of court interventions.