Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
- President Donald Trump signed executive orders to reverse prior policies and address immigration.
- Utah lawmakers support Trump's agenda, wanting to focus on deficit reduction.
- Reps. Blake Moore and Celeste Maloy are helping field proposals for budget cuts.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump got to work quickly after taking the oath of office Monday, signing a series of executive orders to undo presidential actions of his predecessor, cracking down on illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and attempting to end birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.
Hours after the inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C., concluded, Utah's Republican senators and representatives were back on Capitol Hill to help the newly elected president advance his agenda. Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis voted Monday evening to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio and advance the Laken Riley Act — an immigration measure that is on its way to becoming the first legislative win of the new administration.
Representatives met Tuesday to consider the Laken Riley Act and reconvened for an evening session to approve a pair of bills sponsored by Utah Rep. Blake Moore.
"I've never been more tired," Moore told KSL.com at his office, ahead of the floor votes Tuesday evening, reflecting on what would likely be the first of many marathon days in the months ahead as Trump races to implement his early agenda and the GOP-controlled Congress works toward a bill to renew the tax cuts Trump implemented during his first term.
As KSL.com met with several members of Utah's congressional delegation on Capitol Hill Tuesday to discuss how they would work with Trump over the next few months, federal spending — unsurprisingly — emerged as a primary focus.
Curtis — who is so new to the U.S. Senate that he is working out of a basement office with white-washed brick walls while he awaits a permanent assignment — said he feels a new sense of "optimism" in the nation's capital.
"And it's not just Republican optimism," he said. "From President Trump's perspective, it feels a lot like he learned a lot from his first experience, and he's coming to do even more and even better than he did the first time. From the media's perspective, it feels like they're more accustomed to President Trump — maybe not so quick to take him literally and to get so concerned when he says something that ... eight years ago they would have gotten more worked up about."
"And then, I think, from Utah's perspective, but really I think it's the country's perspective, it is a real desire for him to be successful, and not only a desire, but expectations," he added. "There are a lot of pent-up frustrations about the economy, about inflation, about conflicts overseas, about the border, and I just feel a really different tone and atmosphere."
Republicans have been talking about slashing the federal budget for years but have yet to make much progress on their promise and only added to the debt when they last controlled both houses of Congress and the White House early in Trump's first term.
Trump has promised to finally rein in federal spending this time around and announced a Department of Government Efficiency to help look at budget cuts. He signed an executive order Monday renaming the United States Digital Service and creating a "temporary organization" to be known as the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization.
Tesla CEO and Trump megadonor Elon Musk was named by Trump to lead the department, along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, though Ramaswamy left the effort this week. Musk has thrown out ambitious goals of cutting the annual budget by trillions of dollars.
While Moore is no less eager to push for aggressive goals, he cautioned against overpromising on the spending front.
"We've got to be thoughtful and honest with the American people. You can't just throw numbers out," said the congressman, who is one of the leaders of a new House caucus working to help realize Trump's goals. "I will do my part to just be very candid and honest with people (and) set expectations properly. A lot of what Elon is saying is just out there on an X platform, and there's more substantive work that's being done to look into that. So, we'll see what we can accomplish."
Moore spoke with Musk "about a month ago," he said, saying the next several months will be about gathering input from colleagues, then prioritizing potential cuts based on the impact and feasibility of getting the proposals through Congress.
"How easy would this be to implement, and what level of impact will it create?" Moore said. "That will tell you several things like low-hanging fruit, quick wins and more long-term opportunities. Plus, we should probably deprioritize this, because it's not going to happen, it's way too hard to implement, and it's not that impactful."
All of Utah's senators and representatives have spoken about cutting federal spending, and Rep. Celeste Maloy has signed on to the DOGE caucus alongside Moore. Although Republicans in theory can pass their agenda without Democratic support, Maloy is hopeful that Democrats will engage on the issue of spending.
"We're trying to get more Democrats because streamlining government is something we talk about a lot as Republicans but something that's good for Democrats, too," she said. "There's no reason for this to be a partisan effort. Every American needs more freedom and less government overreach, so we need to get Republicans and Democrats sending in ideas of how we can be more efficient."
Curtis said the debt is an "all hands on deck" issue, and there's "near-unanimous agreement" that the next reconciliation bill must address a deficit reduction. While he has proposed significant reforms to Social Security — an entitlement program that accounts for one-fifth of all federal spending — Curtis said talks on such a proposal have not progressed as he would have liked.
"I think we're fooling ourselves if we're not having serious conversations about those," he said. "And I also think it's very important to point out this doesn't mean we're cutting benefits for anybody on Social Security, on anybody even on Medicare" — noting that people are retiring earlier than before, putting more of a strain on the system.
"That type of reform that I think people can look at is very positive and not punitive," he said.
Curtis said Congress needs to understand what Trump's plans are, specifically on promised foreign tariffs through which the president expects to bring in another form of revenue. Though the senator admitted that it's sometimes necessary to interpret Trump's statements to determine what is meant literally and what is simply bluster, he said he believes that Trump will impose tariffs on other countries.
"First of all, I think I look to see which category it's in. If it's actually congressional responsibility, I interpret it as a chide from the president to do our job," Curtis said of parsing through the president's comments. "I think he's very serious when he says he's going to impose tariffs. I've come to the conclusion this is not rhetoric. He's very, very serious, and we should all take him seriously on that."
So, what will it actually take to get a meaningful spending cut to Trump's desk?
According to Moore, House and Senate Republicans will need to show a united front — a potentially tall task given the amount of infighting House Republicans have endured since taking a slight majority in 2023.
"You have two mentalities back here in the Republican Party," Moore said. "You have the straight, ideological approach, then you have the realistic approach. … We're all, in our hearts, ideologues that want to see perfection in everything, but I think my constituents are kind of sick and tired of seeing all talk and no action."
He said Republicans should be willing to accept moderate victories that get the ball rolling in the right direction, rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach. Since the Tea Party took over Congress more than a decade ago with a singular focus on spending, Moore said, the debt has only continued to balloon.
"It's because we don't stick together," he said. "If we stick together and take more singles and doubles, then we will do a better job moving that down the line. But if we continually fracture ourselves … it's great for an X post, but it's not good for what my constituents need. They need me to find a way to reduce the deficit.
"If it's by a smaller percent, they're going to be more happy with that than getting nothing, and I hope we can live with that."
