Musk Backs Congress Reining in Bureaucratic Spending

Amid President Donald Trump’s and entrepreneur Elon Musk’s public push to downsize the federal government, Sen. Mike Lee is advocating for the REINS Act, a bill that would rein in agencies’ power and give Congress more of a say in spending decisions.

The bill has even received support from Musk himself, who reposted on X Lee’s call for its approval.

“In the coming weeks, Congress is gonna be asked once again to raise the debt ceiling,” Lee, R-Utah, said in a video posted to X.

“It’s my belief that we have no business doing that unless we also take steps to rein in spending and bring about pro-growth policies that will help us make sure that we don’t have to go back to the same well and raise the debt ceiling just a few months later,” he added.

In the video, Lee called for the passage of the REINS Act, which would require congressional approval before any new regulation with an estimated impact of $100 million or more could take effect.

“Attached to any debt ceiling increase bill, we’ve got to have the REINS Act,” Lee said, adding, “This is not too much to ask. The Constitution already effectively requires this, it’s just the courts haven’t been enforcing it.”

The bill was reintroduced in the House by Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla. At the start of the 119th Congress in January, she introduced REINS alongside the Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act, which reduces the budget for expiring federal programs.

Cammack has called both bills “tickets to American prosperity.”

The REINS Act is gaining traction in high places, as Musk retweeted Lee and Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt’s calls for the REINS Act on X Monday.

The multibillionaire who has created such a stir in his attempts to downsize the federal government backed the REINS Act months before Election Day, replying, “Great” on X to Lee’s mention of the bill in September.

Ahead of the contentious budget reconciliation process, Lee’s advocacy for the REINS Act is a message to his colleagues that if Trump’s ambitious agenda is going to be funded and ratified, fiscal conservatives would like guarantees that spending will be controlled.

For years, Republicans such as Lee, Schmitt, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have pushed for the bill. First conceived by Kentuckian tea party activist Lloyd Rogers in 2009, the bill has been introduced numerous times. The House has passed the REINS Act several times, but the Senate never has.