Senate Republicans Confirm Russell Vought as Budget Director Despite Democratic Opposition
WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted along party lines Thursday to confirm Russell Vought as the next head of the Office of Management and Budget despite fierce pushback from Democrats.
Although Democrats have been divided on various Trump nominees, they unified in opposition to Vought.
Democrats see Vought as the embodiment of a Trump agenda that they want to build their opposition message around -- from his long-standing ties to Project 2025 to his support for slashing spending programs that benefit the middle class to his election denial.
But with just 47 Democratic votes in Congress' upper chamber compared to Republicans' 53-seat majority, there was little Democrats could do to prevent Vought's nomination from sailing through to confirmation.
Still, Democrats spoke out against Vought when their names were called during the roll call vote. Delivering speeches during a vote is against Senate rules, something Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., reiterated as each Democrat attempted to speak.
Many Democrats said during the vote that they spoke "on behalf of" first responders, federal workers and other groups in voting against Vought's confirmation.
"I vote against creepy billionaire influence," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said when casting his vote.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a post to X after the vote that Vought was "an extremist who has made clear he'll ignore our nation's laws, cut funding that helps people across the country & give Trump unprecedented & unconstitutional power."
"There will be consequences," she added.
Democrats kept the Senate in session overnight into Thursday morning to make their case against Vought after he moved forward on a party-line vote of 53-47 on Wednesday. Vought was confirmed by the same margin on Thursday.
"Russell Vought is not a business as usual nominee. He is one of the most fringe and hard-right individuals the Senate has seen in a very long time," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said ahead of the vote. "He's the chief architect of Project 2025. He is going to make Project 2025 the official policy of the federal government. And at the OMB, he has the power to implement it, to hurt every American."
"Whether it's Medicare or Medicaid, Social Security, whether it's owning a home, helping afford a home, whether it's help for schools, for Head Start, for veterans, you name it. If you look at Project 2025, they want to slash so many of those things to bits," Schumer said.
Republicans celebrated the confirmation vote, with Speaker Mike Johnson saying in a post to X that with Vought's help, "we'll restore fiscal sanity to our budgets and dismantle the regulatory state."
Vought was a key author of the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025," a conservative blueprint to overhaul parts of the federal government that Republicans distanced themselves from during the 2024 presidential campaign.
In a section about the OMB director, Vought wrote that the post could play a "powerful" role in curbing government spending.
"Though some mistakenly regard it as a mere paper-pushing exercise, the President's budget is in fact a powerful mechanism for setting and enforcing public policy at federal agencies," he wrote.
Democrats have also opposed his nomination over concerns that he'll push to further freeze federal funding and cut federal government jobs. During a now-rescinded funding freeze initiated by the Trump administration, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee boycotted a vote to advance Vought's nomination.
Vought has also promoted false claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate, including during his confirmation process.
Asked in a written questionnaire by the Senate Budget Committee if Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Vought responded, "I believe that the 2020 election was rigged."
