Senate Republicans just confirmed Russell Vought as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, but not without controversy.
The 53-47 vote came after Democrats held the Senate floor all night Wednesday to protest Vought and delay his confirmation as much as they could as the minority party.
Vought served as Trump’s budget director late in his first term and then was a key architect of the ultraconservative Project 2025 policy playbook. As head of the budget office, he would play a key role in implementing Trump’s agenda, with influence that stretches across federal agencies. It was the Office of Management and Budget that issued a memo last week ordering a halt to federal grants, loans and assistance payments, creating widespread chaos before courts blocked the administration’s funding freeze and the memo was rescinded.
Republicans say that Vought’s experience makes him clearly qualified for the job and his approach to fiscal policy is sorely needed. “With the federal government running a $2 trillion annual deficit and a national debt approaching $37 trillion, a fiscally sound budget is more important than ever,” Sen. Chuck Grassley said. “I’m counting on Mr. Vought to help the President chart a new fiscal path.”
Democrats worry Vought will clear that path with a chainsaw. From Wednesday afternoon into Thursday evening, Democratic senators spoke one after another, warning about Vought’s agenda and calling him Trump’s “most dangerous nominee,” even if his name is far less recognizable and his nomination has made far fewer headlines than those of other Trump Cabinet picks.
“We want to sound the alarm — sound the alarm — on the reckless and lawless things that Russell Vought will do to American families, to sound the alarm on the chief architect of Project 2025,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Of all the nominees, of all the extremists that Donald Trump elevated, of all the hard-right ideologues who have come before the Senate, none of them hold a candle to Russell Vought. He is far and away the one most dangerous to the American people. Most people have never heard of Russell Vought before, but make no mistake about it, my fellow Americans: He is the most important piece of the puzzle in Donald Trump’s second term.”
Democrats warned that Trump and Vought have already started to implement portions of Project 2025 and that further steps to enact the conservative policy blueprint and slash government would hurt average Americans while benefitting the wealthy. And they said that Trump and Vought are intent on steamrolling past the constitutional boundaries on presidential power, usurping Congress’s authority by using “impoundment” to pause or block appropriated spending.
“Millions, tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions of people will be hurt, and hurt in real, severe ways,” Schumer warned.