Despite his central role in the Trump administration, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought had not appeared before Congress to answer questions since last June. That changed this week. And members of Congress had a lot of them.
Pressed by senators Thursday on the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine Congress and its constitutional power of the purse, Vought repeatedly insisted the administration had done no such thing. He shook his head “no” on many occasions as members of the Senate Budget Committee accused him of breaking the law by refusing to spend money in the way Congress directed.
Senators pressed him on the administration’s refusal to spend congressionally appropriated funds, saying it violated the Nixon-era Impoundment Control Act.
“We have not impounded anything,” Vought repeatedly said.
Despite Vought’s insistence, under his leadership, the OMB and the Trump administration were found repeatedly to have impounded federal funds approved by Congress, as documented in several decisions from the legislative branch’s Government Accountability Office (GAO). The Trump White House also found other ways to undo appropriators’ decisions, pushing congressional Republicans to authorize a rescissions package last year and championing a pockets rescissions package, which the GAO also found to be outside of the law.
“They absolutely impounded. He just lied to America,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) told TPM in response to Vought’s remarks.
“The power of the purse under our Constitution belongs to Congress. And certainly, any bill passed by Congress has to be signed by the president,” Merkley continued. But, once that bill has been signed by the president, the president has a responsibility to execute that plan.”
“If the bill’s been signed into law, his constitutional responsibility is to fund that program, distribute the funds in the fashion in law. Mr. Vought has refused to do that. He has broken the law time and time again, and in so doing — because this is constitutional — he is breaking the Constitution,” Merkley said.
As a part of his defense and in an attempt to explain away why certain programs and departments did not receive their congressionally allocated funds, Vought claimed that a part of his office’s job is to make sure “money is well spent.”
We need to make sure the money being spent “is consistent with our agenda,” Vought added.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) pushed back, saying the executive branch’s job is to spend the money the way it has been allocated once it is signed into law, not make a judgement on it.
“If Congress had appropriated money for housing on Mars, my belief is your job is to administer, not make that judgment. It is our job to make the judgment. It is our job to fight back and forth and then legislate,” Warner said in response to Vought.
“You’re not a legislator. You are ministerially supposed to allocate the funds that are appropriated,” Warner added, also saying, “If you wanted to legislate, you should jump in the fray and try to get elected.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was the sole Republican on the Budget Committee who joined in on the criticism, calling out Vought on funds related to the Community Services Block Grant that he said had not been distributed.
“Congress has appropriated money. You don’t have the authority to impound it,” Grassley told Vought.
Merkley, in comments to TPM, offered his thoughts on Vought’s stance.
“He has no respect for the American Constitution and the separation of powers,” he said. “This is an authoritarian government operating as if the president is king. And if we want to save our democracy, we have to save ourselves from the strategy that Mr. Vought implemented.”
