By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Several House Republicans pleaded with leadership Tuesday for guidance on how to respond to the deluge of questions from their home districts on recent federal cuts, and called for more involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency’s process, multiple sources in the closed-door meeting told CNN.

In an effort to remain publicly in lockstep with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to cut the federal government and its workforce, Republicans have taken to privately urging for humane treatment for federal workers in lieu of condemning elements of the administration’s approach.

GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia spoke out against Elon Musk’s X post earlier this month that included a reference to individuals who rely on federal programs as the “parasite class,” saying during the Tuesday meeting that he has family members that work for the federal government, one of the sources told CNN.

Following his closed-door comments, Scott said in a statement that while he support’s efforts to improve efficiency, requests from Musk’s DOGE for federal employees “should have been coordinated with the agencies before they were issued” and that “referring to Americans who may need government assistance as ‘parasites’ is unacceptable in any circumstance.”

When it comes to criticism of DOGE, calls for empathy are as far as most Republicans have been willing to publicly go since the effort began last month. Some Republicans have begun to side with some of Trump’s agency heads who have instructed their staff not to reply to Musk’s demand that all federal employees state their weekly accomplishments or risk termination.

And while the quiet lobbying to humanize the federal workforce builds on the GOP’s careful pushback and acknowledgement that certain agencies play vital roles, it’s far from a direct criticism and even those who got an earful back in their districts told CNN they still support DOGE.

GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, who faced tough questions at a townhall in his Georgia district last week about the Trump administration’s early actions to slash the federal government, is part of a group expected to meet with President Donald Trump later Tuesday.

“I want to have compassion,” said McCormick, who told CNN he plans to deliver feedback while meeting with the president.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who supports DOGE, acknowledged that “the processes will be modified and improved” over time.

“This is a brand-new effort. There’s no playbook for how to do it,” Johnson said in response to questions from CNN about how leadership is responding to the concerns from rank-and-file members. “There’s no precedent for it. And so, as Elon Musk himself has said, there will be a few mistakes made along the way because they’re creating a new paradigm with this.”

When pressed on what some of those mistakes are, Johnson said: “Not my place to say. I’m going to leave that up to them.”

In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said Monday that “all employees need to be treated in a respectful and dignified way,” though he continued to express his overall support for the DOGE effort.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a state with a number of federal research grants and workers, said his staff has been in touch with various agencies.

“I want to know about some of these terminations. They’ve got to make sense. And if there are sympathetic cases or mistakes, then admit you made a mistake and re-onboard them. It’s that simple,” Tillis, who supports DOGE, said.

‘Out of balance right now’

McCormick, who faced some booing at his townhall in Georgia last week, is under pressure to act given his proximity to the Atlanta-based US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where hundreds of federal workers were fired as part of widespread layoffs.

“I want this to be a discussion about what does impact my district,” McCormick said.

He said Trump’s executive power will eventually need to be reined in – though he did not provide specifics on what that would look like – and that Congress will need to play a more prominent role in enacting the cuts being made. McCormick also said he didn’t like Musk’s demand that the federal workforce detail its work without consulting federal agencies.

“My personal opinion is that we are out of balance right now,” McCormick told CNN. “I’m a big supporter of President Trump. I want to make that very clear. I need to work with him and Congress and the Senate to get some things done, but I want to see it done in a deliberate way that we all agree, so it can be permanent.”

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York was more direct in her criticism of some of Musk’s tactics.

“This idea that they were going to just fire people via Twitter, Elon Musk, that to me, seems rash, it seems not appropriate,” Malliotakis said, questioning why Cabinet officials weren’t able to do an “up and down evaluation” of agencies to see where they could find savings.

Other congressional Republicans have pushed for answers in recent days after being pressed for information in their districts. But instead of criticizing the cuts, lawmakers have largely focused on process.

“They were saying, ‘We want you to tell Elon Musk to stop and tell the president to get Elon,’” GOP Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin said of what he heard back home. “And I was like, ‘Listen you guys, I’m not like engaged on this on a daily basis. I’m learning about this when I see a broadcast as much as anyone else right now. Because we haven’t been briefed on it.’”

GOP Rep. Cliff Bentz of Oregon told CNN he is inquiring with DOGE directly about whether any of the recent reductions in the federal workforce are impacting his constituents given what he heard at four recent townhalls.

“If they are putting anybody at risk I need to know,” Bentz told CNN.

“Do I support the need to reduce the size of government? The answer is yes. When it comes to how it’s being done, that’s going to be a case-by-case thing,” Bentz added.

But GOP Rep. Kevin Hern, who serves in House GOP leadership, downplayed the criticism he received in his district and said it has not deterred him in his full-throttled support of DOGE.

“I’m sticking to it,” Hern said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Alison Main contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.