Senate Republicans are eager to seat the man who could undercut their funding power.
As President Donald Trump boldly defies the will of Congress by issuing executive orders freezing billions of dollars in federal cash that lawmakers have approved in recent years, Senate Republicans are still speaking accolades of Russ Vought, the president’s pick for White House budget director and the man famous for withholding government money during Trump’s first administration.
Key committee chairs are predicting that the Senate will confirm Vought without issue to head the Office of Management and Budget again, even as some GOP senators raise concern about protecting Congress’ “power of the purse” — granted under Article I of the Constitution — from presidential overreach.
“I think all of us are going to vote for you,” Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham told Vought on Wednesday, as the nominee testified before the South Carolina Republican’s committee in his second public vetting this month.
“Bottom line is, I think you’re qualified for the job. I know why he picked you,” Graham said of Trump’s selection of Vought. “And again, we just had an election. And when you win, you get to pick people. And I’m glad he picked you.”
Loyally confirming Trump’s desired budget director amid the new president’s sweeping funding pause would immediately strengthen the White House’s ability to pick and choose what cash to spend, shirking the spending laws congressional Republicans have voted to enact and calling into question the soundness of any bills they clear in the future.
Notably, Vought would not promise Wednesday to avoid circumventing impoundment law, which is meant to block presidents from withholding money Congress has previously passed through the Congressional appropriations process.
Federal watchdogs concluded that Vought and other Trump administration officials violated impoundment law several times during Trump’s first term, including the freezing of aid to Ukraine that helped fuel Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
But Vought said the executive orders Trump issued within hours of taking office Monday are simply “programmatic delays” or “pauses,” explaining they are meant “to ensure that the funding that is in place is consistent and moves in a direction along the lines of what the president ran on.”
While Vought vowed to “faithfully uphold the law” if confirmed, he noted that Trump disagrees with the Impoundment Control Act enacted more than 50 years ago to insulate the congressional appropriations process from executive branch meddling.
“The president ran on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. I agree with that,” Vought said, further insisting that “what the president has unveiled already are not impoundments.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the Budget Committee’s top Democrat, told Vought on Wednesday he was “deeply disturbed” with his answers.
“Congress makes the law, not the president,” said Merkley. “The fact that you continue to advocate for this impoundment strategy, that is completely in violation of our Constitution.”
Under the far-reaching orders Trump issued after he was inaugurated on Monday, federal agencies are now being forced to pause funding from Democrats’ signature climate and spending law called the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as from the bipartisan infrastructure package Republicans helped enact in 2021.
Foreign assistance is also on hold for 90 days, including to Ukraine and Israel as the two U.S. allies are in the midst of wars.
Not every Republican is giving Vought a total free pass. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — which also has jurisdiction over the OMB director nomination and held its own confirmation hearing with Vought last week — said he didn’t think a president should have the power to use government funding differently than how lawmakers have dictated in the bills they pass.
“The power of the purse is Congress,” Paul said during that hearing. “I think if we appropriate something for a cause, that’s where it’s supposed to go. And that will still be my position.”
Nonetheless, less than a week later, Paul led Republicans on his committee to approve Vought’s nomination, stating, “There is no doubt he will be swiftly confirmed.”
