WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday confirmed Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Vought, 48, was confirmed by a vote of 53-47. He served in the same role during President Donald Trump’s first term and was responsible for overseeing the president’s budget, reviewing federal regulations and setting funding priorities for executive agencies.
At the time, Vought proposed billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and other reductions for the Education Department, Interior Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the Washington Post. He also oversaw the freezing of military aid for Ukraine, a move that sparked Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
Before serving in Trump’s administration, Vought was the former vice president of the Heritage Action for America, the sister organization to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that created a sweeping and controversial policy blueprint known as Project 2025.
Vought is credited with authoring the chapter on executive power, in which he argued that the president’s powers are limited by a “sprawling federal bureaucracy” that carries out “its own policy plans and preferences.” Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, which Democrats and critics have called dangerous and authoritarian.
Upon leaving office in 2021, Vought founded the conservative-leaning advocacy group Center for Renewing America, which is committed to defeating “far-left ideology,” according to its website. The group has touted Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Trump said in November, after tapping Vought for the role, that he “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People.”
During his confirmation hearing last month, Vought told senators that government spending can be a “burden” on everyday Americans and that he would pledge to use “taxpayer dollars wisely” in his role.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday held an overnight session on the floor to protest Vought, who they argued was a threat to democracy and would hurt Americans because of his ties to Project 2025.
“His confirmation would be a disaster for working families, and a godsend to billionaires who don’t pay their fair share in taxes,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement on Wednesday.
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee previously boycotted a vote to advance Vought’s confirmation last month.
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