Republican lawmakers have succeeded in back-channeling with Trump officials to save energy and environment programs and workers from the wrath of Elon Musk.

For two months, the tech billionaire’s government efficiency operation has fired federal workers and halted funding streams, causing a barrage of news headlines about widespread uncertainty for EPA programs, money for farmers, Forest Service personnel and more.

Some Republican lawmakers, in turn, have picked up the phone to call Trump Cabinet officials, raising concerns about the fallout in their state and districts. Many have found success while, perhaps unsurprisingly, Democrats say they are coming up empty.

“The administration has definitely been receptive,” Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told POLITICO’s E&E News, when asked about lawmakers’ inquiries into the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Capito had called EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to get him to unfreeze at least some funding for electric school buses that aims to reduce diesel emissions pollution. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which she voted for, provided $5 billion for the program. She toured a bus manufacturer in her state last October.

“This administration realizes that a lot of school systems would want them,” she said. “Us weighing in, I think, had some effect.”

The actions by the administration to withhold congressionally approved funding have raised serious questions as to whether it is violating the Impoundment Control Act, which generally requires the executive branch to fully spend money approved by Congress.

Democrats complain they have resorted to “groveling” for funding. In a meeting Monday, members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet lauded unilateral cuts being made to federal programs.

In Capito’s case, she said EPA’s concern about the buses was more about a Canadian company, Lion Electric, which has filed for bankruptcy “and left a bunch of school systems on the hook for electric school buses,” many of which have malfunctioned. “So I think it’s more about vetting and making sure people are doing what they say they are going to do.”

An EPA spokesperson did not address a question about the exact status of the school bus program but said more broadly Zeldin has pledged to be “a good steward of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

EPA’s inspector general is reportedly probing the matter.

Capito is not alone. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) earlier this month said he was able to prevent DOGE’s planned closures of a National Weather Service office in his Tornado Alley district, as well as other offices belonging to the Indian Health Service and the Social Security Administration.

“After working closely with DOGE and the Administration, I am thrilled to announce that common sense has prevailed,” Cole said in a social media post after the administration changed course.

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) spoke to Forest Service personnel about staffing cuts and other concerns.

Perhaps the most vocal GOP lawmaker against some of DOGE’s methods, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to issue permits for halibut and sablefish fishers just ahead of the season opener. She later thanked him on social media.

“It’s crisis by crisis, reaching out, asking for help, explaining why it’s important to Alaska’s fishing economy,” she told reporters later that day. “It’s not a very efficient way to do things, but I’m not working through the DOGE people; I’m working through the Cabinet secretaries.”

She added: “I’m letting them know what the problem is and giving them the opportunity to solve it. And we’re making a little bit of headway.”

Murkowski was more pointed in her remarks before the Alaska state Legislature.

“No one should feel good about this,” she said last week, according to Alaska’s News Source. “The approach we’re seeing lacks the type of planning you need to avoid unintended consequences.”

In an interview last month, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) — the former Trump Interior secretary — acknowledged frustration after thousands of Forest Service seasonal employees were abruptly fired.

At Interior, Secretary Doug Burgum sought to reinstate as many as 7,700 seasonal temporary park workers after lawmaker outcry. A spokesperson said that it “takes all correspondence from Congress seriously and carefully reviews each matter.”

Zinke likened the DOGE effort to an accordion. “They contracted, and now they are kind of releasing some of it because there was harm being done,” he said. “Then we’ll go back and we’ll reorganize.”

He added he hopes Musk sticks around. “I have no problem looking under the hood, and saying, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of problems.’ But let’s confirm.’”

He said: “I’m an optimist. There’s a lot of disruption — well, perhaps it needed a little bit of disruption.”

On Monday afternoon, Capito stressed “patience,” noting how “clumsily” DOGE work had proceeded at times. She told environmental state officials to “ride it out here a little bit and see where it all settles.”

Democrats, meanwhile, have had little luck.

“It’s been like pulling teeth trying to get information from the federal government,” said Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.). “Folks are very fearful of retribution.”

Specifically, Vasquez had concerns about cutting forest service employees ahead of the upcoming wildfire season. “It’s like crickets: We can’t even get some of that critical information back.”

He also noted the New Mexico delegation raised alarms after DOGE was going to close the Department of Energy Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s only transuranic waste field office.

“We spoke up immediately, rang the alarm, talked to the local media, the director of the facility spoke out. … It’s a lot harder than it should be.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, “No, no, they don’t want to talk to us. It’s very partisan.” He said his constituent service work continues, but he’s had a harder time getting numbers about firings out of agencies. “We don’t get information and I don’t expect that’s going to change,” he said.

Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), said, “After all this big talk about he was going to be transparent, we’re not getting answers to very basic questions.”

Some moderate Democrats, including those who supported some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees in the confirmation process, have opted for a softer, less confrontational approach. They have advocated for “strong partnership” and “finding solutions” to shared concerns without directly bashing the administration.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, for example, voted to confirm Zeldin in February and last week hosted the EPA administrator for a roundtable discussion in Phoenix to “find solutions that will protect our environment and keep our economy growing.” Zeldin is moving to significantly cut EPA funding, fire agency employees and roll back environmental protections.

In response to National Park Service layoffs affecting the Grand Canyon, Kelly recorded a video for social media in which he talked about wanting to work with local officials to “support communities that depend on tourism.”

He said simply, “The administration’s gotta turn this around.”