Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget, will testify before Congress for the second time. Since the first, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) met with Vought and released a statement disagreeing with the nomination.

Democrats on Wednesday grilled Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nominee Russell Vought over recent executive orders made by President Trump they say “illegally” target funding authorized by

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget, poses for a photo with Cabinet picks, other nominees and appointments, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Senate hearings for Trump’s Cabinet nominees progress this week, with Russell Vought (OMB) and Brooke Rollins (Agriculture) set for January 22 and 23. Other nominees, like Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Tulsi Gabbard,

If confirmed, Mr. Vought will be at the center of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to upend the federal bureaucracy.

After Trump's defeat, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank. In speeches he made in 2023 and 2024, Vought described how he helped create legal justifications to prevent military leaders and government lawyers from obstructing Trump's executive actions, ProPublica reported.

Donald Trump's choice to oversee the federal budget, Russell Vought, defended the U.S. president-elect's goal of cutting spending by refusing to spend money that Congress has already authorized at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

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Russell Vought, President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Vought was OMB director during Trump’s first term. He already had a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Russell Vought, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the White House budget office, downplayed his past comments about the usefulness of shutting down the federal government to achieve conservative policy aims.