Democrats Protest Vote on Trump’s Budget Pick Over Medicaid Freeze
Republicans still pushed Russell Vought through.
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee boycotted a meeting Thursday to advance Russell Vought’s nomination to chair the Office of Budget and Management—but of course, Republicans still forged ahead to put his candidacy to a vote.
In a press conference ahead of the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer explained that in light of the OMB’s effort to “illegally freeze trillions of dollars” for federal funding for grants and loans, Democrats would “not move an inch to advance Mr. Vought’s nomination any further.”
“Make no mistake about it,” Schumer warned. “As long as Russell Vought is Donald Trump’s pick for OMB director, Americans can be virtually certain he will try again to illegally seize funding for their communities.”
Several other senators also spoke against Vought, tying him and his work on Project 2025 to Trump’s efforts to undermine federal funding appropriated and agreed to by Congress. The sudden freeze appeared to affect essential government services, and officials in multiple states reported having problems accessing programs such as Medicaid and Head Start.
In his chapter of Project 2025, Vought had written about how the president could have the power to slash government spending without the support of Congress, and his think tank the Center for Renewing America, or CRA, has repeatedly pushed the view that through “impoundment,” the president can pause, or even outright refuse to spend, the full amount of federally mandated funding that Congress has appropriated.
“You know what makes absolutely no sense? Confirming the mastermind of the last few days—of the last few days of chaos—to oversee our country’s budget again,” said Washington Senator Patty Murray.
Democrats urged that Vought’s confirmation should be postponed until the crisis was resolved—and that’s an issue that seems far from over. After the first memo was published Monday, a second memo came out two days later claiming that certain programs that would clearly be affected wouldn’t actually be.
Then a district judge issued a brief administrative stay on the order, then OMB rescinded the original memo, then Trump’s press secretary revealed that it wasn’t a real rescission. Finally, a federal judge agreed to grant a restraining order on the whole thing. And this was just within the past two days.
Republicans on the committee voted 11–0 Thursday to put Vought’s confirmation to a Senate vote.