WASHINGTON — At Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, there is no official help line for members of Congress to call with questions about how the billionaire’s far-reaching effort to slash federal spending might affect their constituents.
But many Republicans have something better: Musk’s personal cellphone number, or failing that, the numbers of some of his top aides.
“I just call Elon,” said Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, when asked how he tracks down answers to DOGE-related questions.
Democrats, meanwhile, have nothing at all.
Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Newton Democrat, said that he tried to get in touch with DOGE about a particular concern — he wouldn’t elaborate on the inquiry or explain how he conveyed it — but that “DOGE had every opportunity to engage with me in good faith and stiff-armed me.”
“There is,” Auchincloss said, “no DOGE 311.”
According to interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers in both parties, the result of the selective customer service so far is a system in which Republicans have channels to learn more about DOGE’s moves and potentially halt or reverse them — while Democrats remain in the dark about the basic functions of the organization and unable to back-channel any concerns.
It’s not unusual, of course, for lawmakers to have a more open and receptive line of communication with the executive branch when it is controlled by their own party and run by familiar people they have known and worked with for years. But DOGE is no normal executive branch project, and for lawmakers, the stakes of being in the know are higher than ever.
One public example has already caused a stir around the Capitol. On March 7, Representative Tom Cole — an Oklahoma Republican who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee — took credit on X for keeping several federal offices open in his district.
“After working closely with DOGE and the Administration, I am thrilled to announce that common sense has prevailed, as the National Weather Center in Norman, the Social Security Administration Office in Lawton, and the Indian Health Services Office in Oklahoma City will remain operational in Oklahoma,” Cole wrote. “All three of these places provide vital and valuable services to Oklahomans and I am so proud to have advocated for them.”
Cole’s Democratic counterpart on the Appropriations panel, Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, wondered what would happen to the additional dozens of targeted Social Security offices that are not in districts where the representative can “just pick up the phone.”
“This is crazy,” she told reporters Tuesday. “You think they’re going to give me anything? Hell no.”
It’s not as if Democrats haven’t tried: Representative Jared Moskowitz, of Florida, made a point of being open to Musk’s mission at first and even joined the Congressional DOGE Caucus. “They’ve never included us in any of the meetings with him, never been invited, never told us about it, we’re not part of the process,” he said.
Republicans, Moskowitz said, “have a direct line to fix problems in their districts, but not us.”
GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, suggested Democrats might enjoy a more productive working relationship with Musk and the administration if they changed their attitude on President Trump. “They need to be a little less violent about hating him, in my opinion,” said Representative Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Typically, the White House makes an effort to provide lawmakers in the opposing party with resources and answer questions about the president’s plans. That work is most often conducted by the administration’s Office of Legislative Affairs. Republicans have praised the team under Trump, while Democrats reported a range of experiences, from having received some introductory contact to having heard nothing whatsoever.
But DOGE is a completely different animal, one that has scrambled the typical dynamics of engagement between the executive and legislative branches. It wields unprecedented power, having slashed or shut a dizzying array of federal offices and programs authorized by Congress, sometimes overriding agency leaders. As an entity, DOGE is both everywhere and nowhere: staffers for Musk have embedded across the federal government but they lack a physical office or any transparency about its organizational chart or basic operations.
To understand the operations of this strike team requires connections. Members like Cole, a veteran lawmaker who runs the most powerful committee in the House, already have them; so too does Scott, a GOP power player whose first campaign manager was Susie Wiles, now Trump’s chief of staff.
But a greater circle of Republican lawmakers are being extended opportunities to build inroads with Musk and his team. On multiple occasions, Musk has met privately with Senate and House Republicans on Capitol Hill to discuss DOGE and has handed out his personal phone number liberally.
“Last week, we spent an hour with him, the week before, an hour with him,” said Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican. “He said call him. I mean, I have his number. He said to call him if it’s something important. I also have some of his folks’ numbers I can call.”
Representative Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican, served in Trump’s first Cabinet and said he has personal relationships with members of the administration. He spoke on a Tuesday on which he’d already heard from Musk at a meeting in Washington.
“They have offered pathways that are quite unusual for the richest man in the world,” Zinke said. “They got his cellphone to members of the Senate. I know members who have his cellphone. I think most members realize not to abuse it either.”
Those inroads become vital when, for instance, Musk’s team decides to execute massive layoffs of federal workers. “We’ve been talking to them when there’s an issue that pops up, mostly with the employee thing,” said LaMalfa, who mentioned the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture as specific areas of concern in his rural northern California district.
“Being a little more surgical on some of that stuff would be good, but I think they’re also hearing about it and working and moving that direction on it, too,” he said.
On the Democratic side, it’s a completely different story, even when lawmakers manage to get on the phone with agency officials.
“We’ve conveyed privately our outrage to the Veterans’ Administration, to the [Federal Aviation Administration], to each of the agencies that DOGE is seemingly taking over,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut. “We have no way to communicate directly with Elon Musk. He’s this ephemeral, Wizard of Oz-type figure who has his hands on everything and is invisible in terms of accountability.”
Some Republican lawmakers have attempted to help connect their Democratic colleagues with the right people in the administration, such as Hoeven. But with DOGE determined to push forward in its agenda, many Democrats understand that their best remaining avenue to counter cuts may be in public, not in private.
Indeed, Democrats have deliberately highlighted the damage that DOGE proposals — like cutting Medicaid — could inflict in Republican states and districts, in hopes of making it harder to dismiss criticism.
Blumenthal, for one, is not optimistic that Republican influence will rein in DOGE.
“I see no evidence of anyone holding Elon Musk accountable in any way,” he said. “And if Republicans are able to reach him, they must have powers of telepathy or channels of communication that Democrats, unfortunately, are lacking.”
Sam Brodey can be reached at sam.brodey@globe.com. Follow him @sambrodey.