Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) says Russell Vought is a ’threat to democracy.”
Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), inched one step closer to being the White House budget chief.
Following a closed Jan. 30 business meeting, Senate Budget Committee Republicans voted 11–0 in favor of Vought’s nomination. His nomination will now be sent to the Senate floor in the coming days.
Democrats on the panel boycotted the vote, criticizing their Republican colleagues for not making the meeting accessible to the public.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), flanked by Democratic lawmakers, urged Vought to return to the committee “to give the American people some honest answers.”
“I fully support the committee’s decision not to participate in this sham process,” Schumer said.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said Vought “is dangerously unfit” to serve at the OMB and “a threat to democracy.”
“This nomination is so troubling that certainly the discussion between the public, between members of the committee should be held in public, and we should benefit from each other’s concerns and perspectives before a vote is held,” Merkley said.
According to Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), the U.S. public was “left out of the room.”
“That’s only going to create more chaos and more confusion,” he said.
“What are they trying to hide? What are they afraid [of]?” said Sen. Alexa Padilla (D-Calif.). “And so yes, we are here in this room today because this kind of behavior cannot be business as usual.”
Leading up to the committee’s vote, Democratic lawmakers urged Republicans to postpone it.
“We have a constitutional crisis,” Merkley stated.
“I am urging the Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fellow appropriator, to hold Russ Vought’s nomination that’s supposed to occur this Thursday,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said at a Jan. 29 press conference. “Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.”Their objection to Vought’s nomination emanates from the controversy surrounding the power of the purse.
Matthew Vaeth, acting OMB director, released a memo on Jan. 27 ordering a freeze on all federal programs and grants to allow agencies ample time to review programs and determine whether they comply with the president’s agenda.
The memo was challenged by nonprofit organizations, and a federal judge imposed an injunction to block the move.
The OMB later rescinded the memo.
“OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have any questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel,” Vaeth said in a new memo issued on Jan. 29.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) celebrated the reversal.
“It’s a long war,” Schumer said. “This may be a small victory, but it’s a long war, and we’ve still got to fight it.”
However, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed on social media platform X that it was “not a rescission of the federal funding freeze” but “simply a recission of the OMB memo.”
“The President’s EO’s [executive orders] on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented,” Leavitt said.
Impounding congressionally approved funding has been a primary subject of discussion during Vought’s two confirmation hearings.
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee expressed concern that Vought would abandon the Impoundment Control Act—a 1974 law that prevents presidents from withholding funds Congress had appropriated—because he considered it unconstitutional.
“No, I don’t believe it’s constitutional,” Vought told Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) during a confirmation hearing earlier this month. “The president ran on that view. That’s his view, and I agree.”
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines 8–7 on Jan. 20 to move Vought’s nomination to the Senate floor. However, the Senate Budget Committee then needed to hold its own confirmation hearing and vote.