Russ Vought is one step closer to returning to the helm of the Office of Management and Budget, which threw Washington into confusion this week with sweeping orders to freeze federal grants and loans.President Donald Trump’s pick to run the powerful White House budget office will head to the Senate floor soon for a confirmation vote, after the Senate Budget Committee advanced Vought’s nomination along party lines on Thursday.
The panel voted 11-0 to move Vought’s nomination to the floor – a vote made up entirely of Republicans, as Democrats less than an hour before the scheduled markup announced they would be boycotting the meeting.
Instead of attending the markup, Democratic senators gathered at a press conference elsewhere in the Capitol to deride Vought as “dangerously unfit.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, headlining the press event, predicted Vought will, if confirmed, “become baggage” for Americans as well as for the president.
“What happened this week should be a lesson to President Trump that following Russell Vought and Project 2025 is a loser — a loser for America but also a loser for Donald Trump,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “Mr. Vought will be the architect of more losing for President Trump.”
Trump’s budget office ended up rescinding a key memo this week ordering agencies to carry out a sweeping freeze of federal assistance, following a court order to delay the action. Trump “had to backtrack,” Schumer said, “his tail between his legs.”
Democrats tried unsuccessfully to postpone the Budget Committee vote to get responses from Vought in writing about what transpired at the OMB this week, with Schumer suggesting his party wouldn’t relent in continuing to press for answers.
“Mr. Vought needs to return to the committee to give the American people some honest answers, or at least some comprehension as to what the hell happened this week, and what the plan is moving forward,” Schumer said on Thursday.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, made a brief appearance at the markup, coming straight from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s second confirmation hearing – but quickly turned heel to join his Democratic colleagues’ boycott.
“They’re not here. They chose not to be here, it’s their right not to be here,” Senate Budget chair Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said of Democrats. “So enjoy the time.”
Recently elected Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, called the Democrats’ move “extraordinarily juvenile,” and “pathetic,” adding, “this isn’t High School Musical, this is serious business.”
Graham did not have a timeline for sending Vought’s nomination to the Senate floor but said he didn’t expect there to be any Republican defections that could complicate confirmation prospects.
“Soon, I hope,” Graham told reporters. “We need to get on with getting the government up and running.” The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has joint jurisdiction over the OMB nomination, advanced Vought hours after Trump was sworn into office.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
