Senate installs Russell Vought as Trump’s next budget chief

Senate Republicans on Thursday confirmed Russell Vought, President Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Budget and Management (OMB), in the face of mounting Democratic attacks over his ties to Project 2025 and the president’s efforts targeting funding already approved by Congress.

The Senate voted 53-47 along party lines to confirm Vought on Thursday night.

“He’s the wrong man – he seems to care little about the needs of American families; at the wrong place – at powerful OMB, where his decisions will be felt in every corner of the country; with the wrong agenda – the horrible Project 2025,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said from the floor ahead of the vote.

His comments came after Democrats have railed against Vought’s nomination in hearings in recent weeks, as well in a spate of press conferences — and, most recently, held a rare overnight session on late Wednesday in protest of Vought’s nomination.

Democrats have targeted the budget pick for his past work as founder of the think tank Center for Renewing America and his involvement as a key architect behind Project 2025 — the conservative blueprint produced by the Heritage Foundation that was often the target of Democratic attacks during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

While Vought said in his hearings that the aim of that work was to focus on “policies that were based on the principles of President Trump running for office in his first term,” he placed distance between his work and the administration, telling Democrats he was testifying “on behalf of the president’s policies that he ran on” when asked about the efforts.

Trump also sought to distance himself from Project 2025 during his recent campaign, saying last year that he had “nothing to do” with the work, although there is overlap between the project and his recent actions.

Democrats have only ramped up attacks on Vought in wake of Trump’s recent orders targeting federal funding approved under the previous administration, including dollars for climate and infrastructure laws. The orders have sparked widespread uncertainty about the programs at stake as the administration faces legal challenges over the moves.

“He is the architect of the dismantling of our federal government, harming us with Medicaid portals shut down, with Head Start shut down, with agencies illegally stormed and the servers being seized, we’ve got to fight back,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a senior appropriator, said en route to the Senate floor Wednesday, as Democrats prepared to hunker down for hours of speeches criticizing Trump’s orders.

Republicans have overwhelmingly backed Vought’s nomination, by contrast, citing his previous experience as OMB chief during Trump’s first term in office. Some have also lauded his past proposals to reduce federal spending, as the president and his allies have sought to undertake significant cost-cutting efforts in a bid to make the government more “efficient.”

“I could talk about the extensive experience, policy experience, that has helped prepare him for this position,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said from the floor this week. “But Mr. Vought has an even bigger qualification for this position – and that is the fact that he’s already held it.”

“As director of OMB, Mr. Vought will have the chance to address two key economic issues – cutting burdensome government regulations and addressing excessive spending,” he said. “Government regulation has a direct effect not only on our economy but on Americans’ pocketbooks.”

Other Republicans have made similar remarks in support of Vought, even as some acknowledge the trillions of dollars added to the nation’s debt during Trump’s term.

“While I was disappointed to see our nation’s annual budget deficit grow during President Trump’s first term, I remain optimistic about President Trump’s nominee, Russell Vought,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a staunch conservative and head of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said of Vought during the panel’s confirmation hearing last month.

He also described Vought as “a consistent advocate for fiscal sanity and has continually suggested strategies to decrease excess spending.”

During his nomination hearings, Democrats needled Vought about his implementation of a measure known as “Schedule F” that can make it easier for federal employees to be fired. Project 2025 also makes the case for the measure’s return.

He also faced heat about past comments in a video uncovered by ProPublica, in which he notably said he wanted some federal workers to be put “in trauma.”

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” he said in the video. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry, because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”

Vought said during his testimony that, in those comments, he “was referring to the bureaucracies that I believe have been weaponized,” arguing “there are portions of weaponized bureaucracies across the federal government.”

Vought’s stance on the Impoundment Control Act, which sets limits on the president’s powers to restrict funding approved by Congress, has also drawn attention in recent weeks. While Vought has vowed the administration will uphold the law, he has reiterated his position in hearings that the measure is unconstitutional.

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