Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee voted 11-0 on Thursday to advance the nomination of Russell Vought to serve as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), while Democratic members of the committee boycotted the vote in protest.
The committee vote sends Vought’s nomination to the Senate floor for further consideration. If confirmed, this would be Vought’s second stint as the OMB director after serving during the first Trump administration.
Prior to the vote, Democratic senators asked Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to postpone Thursday’s meeting to vote on Vought’s nomination until they could get answers regarding OMB’s attempt to freeze all Federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs.
OMB rescinded the order on Wednesday after the funding freeze sparked legal challenges and confusion across the country. However, Republicans decided to move ahead with Vought’s vote on Thursday despite the uproar over the funding freeze.
Democrats held a press conference on Thursday instead of attending the vote, noting that Republican committee members refused to delay the vote or have an open, on-camera discussion on the nomination.
“Given the unlawful behavior of OMB this week, Senate Democrats will not move an inch to advance Mr. Vought’s nomination any further if Mr. Vought, chief architect of Project 2025, intends to continue to break the law at OMB and cause harm to our communities,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., told reporters.
“He should return to the committee and explain himself how this policy happened and exactly what the path forward will be,” Sen. Schumer said, adding, “The hearing that the committee held was before the funding freeze was issued.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said that the Democratic members of the committee stand unified in opposition to Vought’s nomination, calling him “dangerously unfit” to serve as OMB director.
“This nomination is so troubling that certainly the discussion between the 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,” Sen. Merkley said. “But both of our requests – an extension and a public debate and discussion before the vote – were rejected, and thus we stand here, rather than participating in the sham process, in secret, off the floor of the Senate chamber.”
Sen. Merkley added that Senate Democrats have learned that Vought was “intimately involved” in crafting the order that directed the Federal funding freeze.
“He appears to be acting as OMB director without being confirmed,” the senator said. “One of the questions we have asked the administration is: Is he on the payroll? Is he a senior advisor? In what role is he doing this? Is it appropriate for him to be serving in a capacity he hasn’t yet been confirmed to? We have not received those answers.”
