OMB
Russell Vought, President-elect Trump’s nominee to head up the Office of Management and Budget doubled down Wednesday on his support for bypassing the Impoundment Control Act, which restricts the executive branch’s power to hold up or divert funding away from states and local governments, a position that left Sen. Richard Blumenthal D-Conn “astonished and aghast.”
“I think our colleagues should be equally aghast,” he said. “This issue goes beyond Republican or Democrat. It’s bigger than one administration or another. It’s whether the law of the land should prevail, or maybe it’s up for grabs, depending on what the President thinks.”
The discussions happened during Vought’s confirmation hearing before the committee on Wednesday.
Vought became the deputy director of OMB in 2018 via a 50-49 vote in the Senate with VP Mike Pence casting the tiebreaker. He prepares to take the helm of an agency already under pressure.
“Over the past four years, OMB failed to address our nation’s fiscal situation, and, in fact, took actions that accelerated the country’s fiscal crisis,” said Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky.
“Make no mistake, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in Congress are also complicit in this reckless approach to spending by refusing to put any meaningful guardrails or parameters on taxpayers’ money.”
Controlling and diverting funds already appropriated by Congress is emerging as a chief fear about the incoming administration’s intentions.
The federal government supports state and local governments via Medicaid payments and infrastructure projects. At the national level, the payments include providing disaster relief and funding for the war in Ukraine. Impounding funds destined for the states could lead to credit rating issues.
Trump has already threatened to use impoundment to redirect funds, a tactic that is restricted by the Impoundment Control Act.
The incoming administration believes the law is constitutionally flawed. ”I don’t believe it’s constitutional,” said Vought. “The president ran on that view. That’s his view, and I agree with him.”
During Trump’s first term Vought served as the acting director, before officially moving into the OMB director’s chair and remaining there until 2021after his predecessor Mick Mulvaney, was promoted to Trump’s Chief of Staff.
“It is a profound honor to be nominated a second time by President Trump to serve as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget,” said Vought.
“The President has promised the American people a federal government that works for all Americans, not the interests of bureaucrats and an entrenched establishment. During my previous time at OMB as deputy director and director was among the most rewarding experiences of my career.”
OMB is part of the executive branch, and its number one job is producing the president’s budget. The agency was created in 1970 and was originally known as the Bureau of the Budget. It has about 450 employees with a budget of about $140 million.
During the hearing, the Republicans mostly focused on the challenges of taming the national debt by cutting spending while the Democrats dug in on keeping control of the appropriations process by citing legal issues that arose during Vought’s last tenure.
“During your time at OMB, you consistently ignored laws passed by Congress that directed how taxpayer dollars should be spent in 2020,” said Democratic ranking member Gary Peters.
“An investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that OMB, under your leadership, broke the law eight times by directing certain federal agencies to continue to operate during the 2018-2019 shutdown.”
The shutdown was the longest in history lasting from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25 and centered around funding for building a wall on the southern border.
Chairman Paul tossed some of the blame for ambiguity in the law back onto Congress.
“If we want to limit what the President does with moving money around, which I’m sympathetic to, we should have the power of the purse, we got to write better legislation,” said Paul.
“Every piece of legislation that we put out has a presidential waiver for national security, and they always say, ‘if you don’t do that, you’re crazy. What about in times of war’? Well, they just use that for everything.”
Vought also took heat about statements he made while heading up the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank and contributer to Project 2025, a plan sponsored by the Heritage Foundation to reshape the federal government.
Vought received an endorsement from Sen. Paul with the committee scheduled to vote on his confirmation on Monday following the inauguration.
The Senate Banking Committee has also scheduled a hearing with him for next Wednesday. Assuming the committees vote positive, Vought would face the full Senate for the final nod of approval.