Senate Confirms Vought After Democrats Have Their Say

Russell Vought won Senate confirmation on Thursday night to become White House budget director, after Democrats—lacking the votes to block him—had held the floor overnight to rail against President Trump's choice. The 53-47 vote was along party lines, the AP reports. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had said Democrats wanted to "sound the alarm" on the nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget, CBS News reports. "His confirmation would be a disaster for working families," Schumer said before the the talking began Wednesday night, "and a godsend to billionaires who don't pay their fair share in taxes." The talkathon wasn't a filibuster, which Senate rules now prohibit, in the historical sense.

But it was a chance for Democrats to make clear the intensity of their opposition to Vought, per the New York Times. They did something similar during Trump's first term, using all their time to speak against his nominees. "I've never gotten excited about an OMB nominee in my life, but this guy has an unusual view of his role and the presidency," said Sen. Brian Schatz as he waited his turn to speak. "We wanted to make sure everybody understands he's the architect of Project 2025, and he is setting about implementing what they wrote down." Majority Leader John Thune praised Vought's experience, per CBS, saying he'll be able to move quickly once in office. Vought will make priorities of cutting "excessive spending" and "burdensome government regulations," Thune said.

The office is deeply involved in developing the administration's budget and policy priorities, as well as agency rules, per the AP. Vought himself wrote in Project 2025 that the OMB should be "involved in all aspects of the White House policy process" and be "powerful enough to override implementing agencies' bureaucracies." Vought has helped engineer many of Trump's steps to get around Congress to defund the federal agencies. He advocated reclassifying thousands of federal workers as political appointees during Trump's first term, which could enable mass dismissals. (More Russell Vought stories.)