After Senate Democrats used the maximum 30 hours of debate, Russell Vought is set for a Senate floor vote Thursday night that would confirm him to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
Democrats have stalled on several of President Donald Trump’s appointments, but they have been especially opposed to Vought.
In Vought’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee on Jan. 22, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that since 2019, the U.S. population has grown 2%, while spending has grown 55%, adding that the government sent $1.6 billion in stimulus checks to dead people that were fraudulently cashed. He asked Vought about his plan to save money and reduce wastefulness.
“I think it’s the strategy we had in the first term, which is to go and to take a very close look at the agencies that are spending and wasting money and, I believe, are weaponized against the American people,” he said.
Vought told the story of Joe Robertson, a 77-year-old Navy veteran, who received an 18-month prison sentence for digging ponds on his property for fire protection. The Environmental Protection Agency claimed it went against its unclear guidelines regarding “navigable waters.”
Vought also said he seeks to cut programs that are keeping people out of the workforce. He said some of the programs during the COVID-19 pandemic were “not just a social safety net but a benefit hammock.”
There have been reports of people not going back to work because their unemployment benefits were higher than their paychecks.
Another point of contention between Vought and Democrats concerns the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which seeks to limit the power of the executive branch with the congressional budget. Vought said both he and Trump believe the law is unconstitutional.
Vought’s quest to reduce government spending received criticism from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
“Congress makes the law, not the president,” Merkley said. “The fact that you continue to advocate for this impoundment strategy, that is completely in violation of our Constitution.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) noted that federal spending has increased from around 19% of gross domestic product in past decades to 25% this year.
“Trying to get back to historical levels of outlays is one of those important first steps to begin to find out ways to not set records as a percentage of GDP,” Vought said.
In his Jan. 15 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Vought said the executive branch can have some influence on congressional spending.
“For 200 years, presidents had the ability to spend less than an appropriation if they could do it for less,” Vought said. “As it pertains to the parameters of how we would use that, that’s something that his team will have to consider when they are confirmed.”
In part due to Elon Musk’s efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration has uncovered wasteful government spending programs, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development spending $70,000 on a “DEI musical” in Ireland.
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Trump campaigned on reducing wasteful spending programs that don’t uphold American values. A Vought confirmation would mean that congressional Democrats’ wasteful spending programs will be further exposed and reduced.
Democrats have delayed other Trump confirmations, but their strong opposition to the Vought nomination shows how scared they are of him.