Republican Sen. Katie Britt has been working to make sure the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t hit what she called “life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions,” including her state’s beloved University of Alabama.

Kansas GOP Sen. Jerry Moran is worried that food from heartland farmers would spoil rather than be sent around the world as the U.S. Agency for International Development shutters.

And Idaho GOP Rep. Mike Simpson warns national parks could be impaired by cutbacks at the start of summer hiring in preparation for the onslaught of visitors.

“We need to have a conversation with DOGE and the administration about exactly what they’ve done here,” said Simpson, a seasoned lawmaker who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. “It’s a concern to all of us.”

One by one, in public statements and private conversations, Republican lawmakers are beginning to speak up to protect home-state interests, industries and jobs that are endangered by President Donald Trump’s executive actions and the slash-and-burn tactics erupting across the federal government by billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE.

While Democrats have been denouncing the impact of Trump’s cuts on Americans, the stirrings from Republicans are less a collective action than targeted complaints. Almost none are openly questioning the purpose or legality of the DOGE effort, which the party has largely cheered. But taken together, the quiet concerns are the first glimmers of GOP pushback against Trump’s upending of the federal government.

“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said Tuesday in the Oval Office with Trump.

The situation unfolding on a scale like nothing Washington has ever seen as Trump issues executive actions at a rapid clip and Musk’s team roams agency to agency, tapping into computer systems, digging into budgets and searching for what he calls waste, fraud and abuse. Dozens of lawsuits are piling up claiming Trump and DOGE are violating the law.

While Presidents have long taken liberty with their authority to issue executive orders, actions and proclamations toward their goals, the White House typically choses a few signature priorities to make a mark rather than employ such vast power to sweep across the government.

Former President Barack Obama, for example, used executive authority to protect from deportation an entire group of immigrants — the young “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children without proper paperwork. Former President Joe Biden used his executive authority to cancel student loan debt for millions. Both actions have been in court and are still making their way through the legal system.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said DOGE is taking a “meat ax” to the federal government.

“If you want to make cuts, then you do it through a debate in Congress,” said the New York Senator, “not lawlessly.”

It raises questions about what happens next as judges are quickly slapping on limits and halting many of the White House actions. Both Musk and Vice President JD Vance have questioned the legitimacy of judicial oversight, which is a mainstay of the U.S. democracy and its balance of power.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he met with Musk at the start of the week and has no concern that DOGE is going too far or treading on Congress’ authority to direct taxpayer dollars or provide oversight of the executive branch.

“To me, it’s very exciting what they’re able to do because what Elon and the DOGE is doing right now is what Congress has been unable to do in recent years,” the Louisiana Republican said, referring to the spending reviews underway.

Johnson said he agrees with Vance and suggested the courts should cool it.

“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” he said. “What we’re doing is good and right for the American people.”

Alabama’s Britt was far from alone in speaking up about Trump’s caps on the National Institutes of Health grant program that hit universities, medical centers and research institutions coast to coast.

“While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed,” the senator said in a statement.

North Carolina GOP Sen. Ted Budd said he has heard from constituents in his state, home to the Raleigh area’s influential Research Triangle. And Sen. Susan Collins, the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, listed the ways scientists in Maine are conducting “much-needed research on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy,” as well as other research as she decried the funding caps.

“There is no investment that pays greater dividends to American families than our investment in biomedical research,” Collins said in a statement.

As the U.S. Agency for International Development was being dismantled, Kansas’ Moran said on social media that “U.S. food aid feeds the hungry, bolsters our national security & provides an important market for our farmers, especially when commodity prices are low.”

The Senator said he spoke to the Department of Agriculture and “the White House about the importance of resuming the procurement, shipping & distribution of American-grown food.”

Moran and others have been working on legislation that would move management of food aid program from USAID to USDA.

On Saturday, Moran shared an update: “GOOD NEWS: State Dept. has approved shipping to resume, allowing NGOs to distribute the $560 million of American-grown food aid sitting in US & global ports to those in need.”

He thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio “for helping make certain this life-saving aid gets to those in need before it spoils.”

It’s unclear, however, if the aid work will have the funding to resume. And the gutting of global supply lines for aid shipments, thanks to the shuttering of USAID, also makes it uncertain that enough workers can be found to deliver stalled food aid, aid groups say.

In Florida, GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez is trying to help Venezuelans, who fled their homeland and are now living in the Miami area under Temporary Protected Status, from being deported as Trump ends the program.

Gimenez wrote last month to ask the administration to consider Venezuelans on a case-by-case basis.

“I support the President in the vast majority of things he does,” Gimenez told the Associated Press.

“As a member of Congress, I also have to represent the interests of my constituents,” he said.

Asked if he felt he had the power to make a difference, he replied: “I’m not powerless. I’m a member of Congress.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence after Republicans who had initially questioned her experience and judgment fell in line behind her nomination.

Gabbard was an unconventional pick to oversee and coordinate the country’s 18 different intelligence agencies, given her past comments sympathetic to Russia, a meeting she held with now-deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad and her previous support for government leaker Edward Snowden.

Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, was confirmed by a 52-48 vote, with Democrats opposed in the sharply divided Senate where Republicans hold a slim majority. The only “no’ vote from a Republican came from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

She will take over the top intelligence post as Trump works to reshape vast portions of the federal government. Intelligence agencies including the CIA have issued voluntary resignation offers to staffers, while cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to sensitive government databases containing information about intelligence operations.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created to address intelligence failures exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001. Republicans have increasingly criticized the office, saying it has grown too large and politicized. Trump himself has long viewed the nation’s intelligence services with suspicion.

GOP Senators who had expressed concerns about Gabbard’s stance on Snowden, Syria and Russia said they were won over by her promise to refocus on the office’s core missions: coordinating federal intelligence work and serving as the president’s chief intelligence adviser.

Democrats noted that Gabbard had no experience working for an intelligence agency and said her past stances on Russia, Syria and Snowden made her a poor choice for the job. They also questioned whether she would stand up to Trump if necessary and could maintain vital intelligence sharing with American allies.

“It is an insult to people who have dedicated their lives and put themselves in harm’s way to have her confirmed into this position,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA analyst, about members of America’s intelligence service.

Until GOP support fell into place, it was unclear whether Gabbard’s nomination would succeed. Given the 53-47 split in the Senate, Gabbard needed virtually all Republicans to vote “yes.”

Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base has pressured senators to support Trump’s nominees, and Musk, the President’s ally, took to social media recently to brand U.S. Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, as a “deep-state puppet.” Young had raised concerns about Gabbard but announced his support after speaking with Musk. The post was deleted after they spoke, and Musk later called Young an ally.

Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for President in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience and has never run a government agency or department.

Gabbard’s past praise of Snowden drew particularly harsh questions during her confirmation hearing. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about U.S. surveillance programs.

Gabbard said that while Snowden disclosed important facts about such programs that she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. “Edward Snowden broke the law,” she said.

Gabbard’s 2017 visit with Assad was another flashpoint. He was recently deposed following a brutal civil war in which he was accused of using chemical weapons.

Following her visit, Gabbard faced criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator, and then there were more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used such weapons.

Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.

“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions,” Gabbard said.

She also has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past, she opposed a key U.S. surveillance program known as Section 702, which allows authorities to collect the communications of suspected terrorists overseas.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is making sure the Free State of Florida’s reputation stays afloat even off dry land.

DeSantis is touting new “boater freedom” initiatives, which include taking a stand against electric boats in favor of petroleum-powered vessels.

“We do not want to have our boaters to be unnecessarily interfered with by sometimes well-meaning law enforcement, but sometimes it doesn’t work,” DeSantis said at the Miami International Boat Show.

“So today, we are announcing a boater freedom initiative. We want to establish a right to boat in the state of Florida by preempting local regulations that ban the sail or use of boats based on fuel sources. … You don’t need to be driving an electric boat if you don’t want to. You have the ability to do gas and we want to be able to preserve your freedom to be able to do that.”

DeSantis also wants to stop inspections of boats without “probable cause,” which can “lead to further law enforcement action beyond mere safety compliance.”

“If you’re pulled over, there’s got to be a reason,” DeSantis said.

He notes that a false DUI accusation of a boater blowing “a zero breathalyzer” in Jupiter as proof of why that’s necessary.

“We will end this practice by prohibiting the use of safety inspection as a probable cause to pull over the boater,” DeSantis said.

“If you have a reason to do it, if there’s probable cause just like you would do anything, then by all means do it. But people who were just out enjoying themselves when there’s no indication that anything is wrong, they should not be subjected to these intensive searches, and so this is a fair and balanced approach.”

DeSantis also intends to make available a Florida Freedom Boater decal so law-abiding boaters can identify themselves, also helping officers allocate time more effectively.

“By eliminating unwarranted vessel inspections without probable cause, we believe that FWC (Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) officers can better allocate resources in time to cases where there is a clear need for intervention, protecting our wildlife and ultimately the work that they originally signed up to do,” DeSantis explained.

“This change will help provide better relations between officers and the boating community and will ensure that inspections are conducted based on legitimate concerns rather than arbitrary pick and choose enforcement. This strikes an appropriate balance between ensuring compliance with boating laws and reducing unnecessary disruptions of law-abiding boaters.”

Additionally, the Governor wants a marine fuel tax holiday from Memorial Day Weekend through July 4.

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