LINCOLN — U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., reassured his constituents Tuesday that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the House GOP budget are not threats to the stability of the social programs they rely on or the federal agencies that provide benefits like Social Security and Medicaid.

Bacon also said he and a bipartisan group of House lawmakers are prepared to push back against Trump administration efforts to privatize key government functions such as the U.S. Postal Service. He said he would press DOGE and the administration to be more thoughtful in cutting government spending.

Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, also called on President Donald Trump and his national security team to take accountability for accidentally sharing war plans with a journalist using a consumer-grade cell phone app, Signal.

Tele-Town Hall

Unlike previous years when Bacon held in-person town halls, the Omaha-area congressman held a Tuesday evening tele-town hall for more than 17,000 people. His choice received criticism from Nebraska Democrats, but Bacon’s team has said he made the format change because of “large interest.”

National leaders advised House Republicans to avoid in-person town halls after several meetings saw public protests and angry constituents. Democrats have argued Bacon feared facing the people he represents.

Multiple Democratic-aligned groups have again targeted Bacon’s seat, seeing Nebraska’s most competitive congressional district as a potential flip for the midterms. Bacon represents the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, one of the few remaining swing districts nationally.

Bacon stepped into the national spotlight as one of the few House Republicans willing to criticize the Trump administration over DOGE, its handling of Ukraine and its relationships with allies, including Europe and Canada. Bacon continued that trend this week by commenting on the administration’s latest controversy.

Signal Controversy

On Monday, The Atlantic published a story in which its editor-in-chief was added to a Signal group chat by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, where Waltz and other administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, discussed specifics about pending military strikes in Yemen.

Bacon told his constituents that those involved should admit they made an error.

“Thus far, they have not,” Bacon said. “I want people to take responsibility for their actions. Blaming the reporter. Blaming [the] Atlantic is not taking responsibility,”

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts also weighed in on the Signal controversy late Tuesday, telling the Examiner in a statement that the leak was “terrible.”

“Someone needs to stand up and be accountable,” Ricketts said. “There needs to be a thorough review of what happened, and it must not happen again.”

Bacon told reporters after the town hall that he would keep his “mind open” on the kind of accountability Hegseth should face. He didn’t rule out asking for Hegseth to be fired after a reporter asked if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ calls for Trump to fire Hegseth would be an “appropriate amount of accountability.”

Waltz said he’s takes “full responsibility” for the controversy on Fox News Tuesday.

Less Viral Than Some

While Bacon’s tele-town hall didn’t go as viral as others, including U.S. Rep. Mike Flood’s recent town hall in Columbus, he faced similar questions from constituents about potential cuts to Medicaid and social programs.

All three Nebraska House Republicans voted yes for the proposed GOP budget that would expand the 2017 Trump tax cuts and cut $2 trillion in spending. A non-partisan federal budget office said earlier this month that cuts at that scale can’t happen without cutting Medicare or Medicaid.

Bacon and others claim other cuts can be found that avoid Medicaid and other social programs. Most have not specified what they would cut.

Bacon said House Republicans are looking to tweak Medicaid, including adding work requirements for “able-bodied adults that do not have children,” and job training because “the goal is to get people on actual insurance.” He added that Republicans want to do annual audits of Medicaid, because he said the government hasn’t been allowed to regularly audit the program for five years.

“We probably have folks who do not qualify for Medicaid,” Bacon said. “I believe in the end, we’ll do smart changes to Medicaid, but we’re going to preserve it,”

Another issue raised during the town hall was the Trump administration’s approach to cutting government costs with DOGE. Constituents raised concerns about how the agency looks for “fraud” in the federal government, including pausing certain federal grants and firing thousands of federal workers.

Of DOGE, the congressman said, “We need to think carefully before we fire somebody.”

Weather Balloons

Those cuts reached home when the National Weather Service office for the Omaha area, and other Great Plains offices recently announced pausing the deployment of weather balloons after the Trump administration cut 1,000 jobs at the national agency that monitors local weather early this month.

Weather balloons are a key tool in forecasting, which constituents called essential for Nebraska during tornado season and other extreme weather, such as last week’s blizzard. Meteorologists have said that forecasts could be less accurate without them.

Bacon said he would “press the White House” to restore the National Weather Service office’s ability to deploy weather balloons. He told the Examiner he plans to get other representatives affected by cuts to the Weather Service to write a letter to the White House.

“So I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve been focused on Ukraine, Russia, NATO, Canada, Greenland and tariffs, but this needs to be dealt with,” Bacon said.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/03/26/u-s-rep-don-bacon-in-tele-town-h...