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Senate Democratic leaders said on Thursday President Trump’s pick to oversee the management of federal agencies and their employees is “at the very top of the list” of the president’s most unpalatable appointees, vowing to push some Republicans to join them to sink his nomination.
The Democratic objections to OMB Director-designate Russ Vought stemmed from three main concerns: the likelihood he will propose slashing federal programs through diminished budgets, his stated consideration of withholding funds appropriated by Congress and his vows to roll back the merit-based career civil service. They made clear they have not yet identified any of the Republicans who would be necessary to defeat Vought’s nomination, but said their work in doing so is just getting started.
“This man is an appalling nominee,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a press conference focused on Vought’s qualifications. “I hope our Republicans on the other side will just see what this guy is all about and decide they can do better.”
Schumer suggested Vought may be the Trump nominee who would wreak the most damage on the country.
Vought drew bipartisan criticism in his confirmation hearing for his refusal to confirm he would follow congressional spending laws when distributing funds to agencies, noting Trump has called existing restrictions unconstitutional and he would follow the president’s directives. The former OMB director at the end of Trump’s first term has also taken an adversarial approach to the federal workforce and told lawmakers last week the bureaucracy has been weaponized and that reforms were necessary to undo that reality.
“Russ Vought has an unusual degree of gleeful hatred for the federal workforce,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said. Referring to a speech in which Vought said he wanted federal employees to be “put in trauma” and be “viewed as the villains,” Kaine added: “Who talks like this?”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said the OMB director will perhaps be the most influential figure in implementing Trump’s agenda.
“That is why this nominee, Mr. Vought, is the most dangerous nominee put forward by Trump,” Merkley said. He added that Vought “exudes hate for federal workers.”
Trump has already reinstated his policy known as Schedule F, which would strip tens of thousands of federal employees of their civil service protections and make them vulnerable to political loyalty tests. Vought was one of the lead architects of that plan and called it a “sound policy” during his confirmation hearing.
“It is to ensure that the president, who has policy-setting responsibility, has individuals who are also confidential, policy-making positions are responding to his views, his agenda,” Vought said. “And it works under the same basis that most Americans work on, which is they have to do a good job or they may not be in those positions for longer.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, lamented Vought’s refusal to rule out violating the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. That law prohibits the executive branch from withholding congressionally appropriated funds for policy reasons. Given his position, Murray said, it would defy “all common sense and judgment” to put Vought back at OMB.
“The Impoundment Control Act remains the law of the land and the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power of the purse, and yet Russ Vought will not say that he will follow the law,” Murray said. “If you’re not willing to follow our laws, well, then you cannot be trusted to implement our laws.”
Vought defended his position last week by saying Trump was elected with the public knowing his stances in keeping the door open to again impounding funds.
“We’ll be developing our approach to this issue and strategy once his administration is in office,” Vought said last week and echoed in a second confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that held Vought’s first confirmation hearing, said last week he took issue with Vought’s answer.
“I think if we appropriate something for a cause, that’s where it’s supposed to go, and that will still be my position,” said Paul, who nonetheless vowed to support Vought’s nomination.
Murray added it would become far more difficult to reach funding and other deals if the Trump administration decides to withhold any of the spending it does not support.
“How are we ever supposed to reach a bipartisan compromise here if Vought and President Trump are just going to ignore” those negotiations, Murray said.
Schumer added Trump has already violated the Constitution by issuing an executive order to withhold funds Congress previously authorized as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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