Why Russ Vought is central to the government shutdown fight : NPR

Russell Vought, director of the management and budget office, is expressed with journalists outside the west wing of the White House on July 17.

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President Trump said on Thursday that he would meet his budget director Russ Vought, whose “democratic agencies” to cut while the federal government was closed.

The daily operations of the federal government are carried out by non -partisan workers with certain federal agencies led by people appointed politicians. But the Trump administration uses the closure to target the Democratic Party.

“I cannot believe that the radical democrats on the left gave me this unprecedented opportunity”, ” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He called on the Republicans to use the closure to “eliminate dead wood” and said that billions of dollars can be saved “by eliminating waste and fraud”, but have given no example.

While some call threats from the Trump administration as a political “bluff” to force Democrats to return to the negotiating table, Vought, director of the management and budget office, seems to be good at this promise.

He announced on Wednesday the cancellation of $ 8 billion in energy projects. He also promised to cancel $ 18 billion in infrastructure funding in New York, targeting the head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, and the Democratic Manager of the Hakeem Jeffries Chamber.

Vought also warned that federal workers’ layoffs would begin in a few days – although any strength reduction should come from the agencies themselves and follow certain procedures.

Chamber Mike Johnson, R-La., Told journalists on Thursday that Vought had no other choice. He blamed the Democrats of the Senate to have forced the hand of the administration and said that Vought followed a directive of the president.

“Russ must sit and decide because he is in charge of this office, what policies, the staff and what programs are essential and who are not. It is not a funny task. And he does not benefit from this responsibility,” said Johnson. “It could end today if the Democrats of the Senate come back to their minds … if they do not … it will become more and more painful.”

Executive power in a closure

The closure does not give Vought or the White House of additional powers, according to Bridget Doling, professor of law at Ohio State University who has worked at the OMB for more than a decade.

She maintains that it is a clear misunderstanding of the differences between temporary towers in credits, which is a judgment, compared to the permanent dismissal of workers.

“It’s a bluff,” she said. “And it is the administration that tries to use a lever effect to force democrats at the table to negotiate, so that the government opens the government.”

The White House says that the Democrats have left them as much choice than to seek economies through the federal government. But they did not explain why permanent layoffs would be necessary and not only temporary leave.

And Vought’s previous declarations and writings indicate that it is less focused on work with the Democrats and has focused on the realization of the changes for which it has long defended.

Vought has long pleaded for strict cuts

Vought was a key architect of the 2025 controversial project, a conservative game book released in 2023 to guide a future potential republican administration. Vought argued that the White House had to adopt a more activist approach to reduce spending and revision of the federal workforce.

Now he is part of the administration and works to achieve these objectives.

He said that with the Republicans in full control of the federal government, it was time to contain spending, that they had the support of the Democrats.

“The credits process must be less bipartite,” Vought told journalists during a breakfast organized this summer by the Christian Science Monitor.

Tuesday, Vought told Fox Business that he considered the closure as an opportunity to achieve the wider objectives of the administration to revise the federal workforce.

“Let it be said that there are all the ways of the authorities to be able to advance the political agenda of this administration, and this includes the reduction in the size and scope of the federal government, and we will look for opportunities to do so,” said Vought.

Last week, he sent A note to federal agencies Tell them to prepare for large -scale federal workers if the government stops.

This decision indignant the main democrats.

Jeffries said the threat would not fold the Democrats to support republican spending plans which, according to them, harm public health.

“Listen to Russ, you are a clever political piracy,” Jeffries Posted on X. “We will not be intimidated by your threat of engaging in mass fire.”

The Republican leaders of the Congress claim that the Democrats have linked themselves and essentially gave the power of the handbag to the executive branch.

The government generally decides which employees are “essential” vs “non -essential” for a temporary closure. But in this case, the White House can use this concept for permanent cuts.

Hill Democrats say Vought did the same thing he did before closing

Most Democrats of Capitol Hill say that Vought’s actions are not different from what it has done since the start of the administration, and this is a key reason to blame them.

“This increases the signs of our democracy evaporating before our eyes,” said Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., At NPR. He said that a wind project had been canceled in his country of origin and that there is a legal battle on it.

Several Democrats say that Vought and the President were determined to use the closure as a claim to inflict new pain on political opponents.

“I think everyone should worry,” said Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA., About Vought’s news targeting blue states with hours after the closure start. He declared that any agreement to reopen the government should come with enforceable provisions which guarantee that money is distributed as specified in the legislation.

“For me, the most important thing about this budgetary negotiation is to bring the president to agree that an agreement is an agreement, because he acts simply as a king unilaterally – continue the enemies, go after the cities I do not like,” said Kaine.

Kaine noted that before the closure, the Trump administration had canceled $ 40 million for an economic project in Norfolk, Virginia, and fell $ 400 million in public health money during an increase in cases of measles.

The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., stressed that to reopen the government, he needs five other democrats to vote with the GOP on a Stopgap bill. Three senators – Senator of Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada and Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, as well as Angus King independent of Maine – supported the GOP bill this week.

After Cortez Masto broke up with her democratic colleagues, she explained in a statement that she is concerned about her country of origin and the economic impact on the tourism industry, military facilities and more.

“This is why I cannot support an expensive closure that would harm the families of Nevada and gave even more power to this reckless administration,” she said.

When Vought Published on social networks A list of energy projects in the blue states it canceled, Nevada – which houses two Democratic senators – was not on the list. We do not know if Cortez Masto’s vote for the GOP bill influenced this omission.

The president of the Senate credit committee, Susan Collins, R-Maine, clearly indicated on Wednesday that she opposed the unilateral cuts of Vought. Collins stressed that it focuses on the development of bipartite agreements on individual expenditure invoices.

Another permanence of the GOP, Senator Mike Rounds, RS.D., said that Vought would not make these cuts or would not announce federal dismissals if there was no forfeiture in federal funding. Referring to the OMB, Roundnds said: “When you close the government, you offer them a perfect opportunity to have a reason to reduce permanent costs, and the executive power is perfectly in their power to do so, especially when you have a closure of the government.”

He said that if the Democrats wanted to make Vought more difficult to act, they must vote for a short -term financing bill.

But the Democrat Chris Murphy says that the more Vought pushes the legal envelope, the more the Democrats should fight back.

“We would be drageising to sign a budget in which none of the funding is never spent in democratic states and all funding is spent in the Republican states. As they act without law, our spine should stiffen,” said Murphy.

Unions are fighting

Federal workers say the Trump administration has already exceeded its authority. On Tuesday, a few hours before closing, the unions representing more than 800,000 federal employees continued Vought, as well as the director of staff management (OPM), Scott Kupor, on what he called illegal threats to dismantle the essential federal services and functions provided by federal staff.

“It is an illegal abuse of power designed to punish patriotic officials and put pressure on the congress”, ” EVerett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said on Wednesday morning in an NPR interview.

AFGE, as well as the American state, county and municipal employees, argue that the OMB note takes “legally unbearable position” that the credit period eliminates the legal requirements of federal agencies to carry out programs that Congress had previously financed.

In their complaint, the unions allege that the Office budget note orders illegally agencies to ignore their own authorization statutes.

The unions have asked the court to declare that the OMB and the OPM have exceeded their statutory authority and acted in a arbitrary and capricious manner, and to invalidate all the actions that can come from the service notes and the directives issued.

NPR Politics journalist Stephen Fowler contributed to this report.