FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, February 6, 2025
PRESS CONTACT:
nicole@focalpointstrategygroup.com
Vought Now Has Senate Republicans’ Blessing To Usurp Congress’s Constitutional Powers Over Spending
Vought’s Confirmation Will Lead Directly To Cuts In Vital Resources For Millions Of Americans, Hurt Our Economy
Washington, D.C. – Today, Thursday February 6th, the Senate voted to confirm Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director nominee Russell Vought. All 47 Senate Democrats voted against his confirmation, while all 53 Republicans voted in favor. Senate Democrats held an all-night marathon on the Senate floor last night in protest of Vought’s nomination.
Vought falsely contends that the Trump administration can unilaterally cancel programs and services funded in laws passed by Congress, through a process known as impoundment. Trump-Vought’s impoundment actions threaten to raise the cost of living, weaken our national security, kick children out of afterschool programs and child care, and pull families out of their homes.
Millions of Americans rely on the vital programs which Vought wants to unilaterally cut. The Senators who voted for Vought today are putting Trump ahead of their constituents and their own power allotted to them by the United States Constitution.
Congressional Integrity Project Senior Advisor Kyle Herrig issued the following statement on behalf of the Checks and Balances War Room:
“By confirming Russell Vought as OMB Director, Senate Republicans have willfully handed over their power of the purse to the executive branch. This has been Vought’s plan all along. As the architect of Project 2025, Vought developed a system for Trump to amass unprecedented power, ignoring the will of Congress by canceling funds they have already appropriated. Senate Republicans own this. The next time Vought sends the country into complete chaos by canceling funding for essential programs, remember that you’ll have Senate Republicans to thank.”
Within moments of taking the Oath of Office, President Trump unleashed Vought’s unconstitutional and unprecedented plan to illegally impound funds already obligated by the federal government. In other words, the federal government has promised funding to specific grantees and, now, the Trump Administration is cancelling the check. Two federal courts have issued injunctions on the Trump-Vought impoundments, yet the White House appears to be defying the court orders, testing our nation’s Constitutional separation of powers.
Impoundment is illegal and unconstitutional; Congress created a process for the executive branch to withhold or rescind funding with Congressional approval in the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Vought has built an agenda for using impoundment and challenging the Constitution, allowing Trump to ignore the will of Congress and amass unprecedented power. Vought and his Center for Renewing America and Project 2025 created the roadmap for the President to deploy impoundments and ignore laws passed by Congress without a vote.
Impoundment occurs when the president declines to spend money Congress has appropriated and enacted into law. This practice has always been unconstitutional, supported by the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump made the power of impoundment a priority in his agenda. New polling from the Wall Street Journal shared that an overwhelming majority of voters are opposed to impoundments.