As congressional Republicans near the finish line on authorizing $9 billion in federal cuts made by the Trump administration, the man who helped those cuts over the finish line hinted that it was just the beginning.
Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast that the administration will likely push for legislation clawing back spending that Congress previously authorized.
The comments come as Congress is on the cusp of passing $9 billion in rescissions, which allow the administration to request that Congress let it cancel spending on previously authorized funds. This legislative tool, which hasn’t been used since the 1990s, is helping the Trump administration reshape the executive branch while dramatically strengthening its hand vis-a-vis Congress in a way not seen in the modern era.
“This is the kind of thing that’s necessary for us to change the paradigm of the way the town has worked,” Mr. Vought said.
“The notion that we have now dusted off a process that allows on a majority basis to come along after and cut funding is very, very substantial,” he continued.
Mr. Vought, who was an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 for the new administration and who also served as OMB director during Mr. Trump’s first term, has become arguably the most powerful figure in the Trump administration on fiscal issues. And while he tried to downplay his influence somewhat – “I don’t have an expansive role. I’m the director of OMB,” he said at one point –he made clear exactly how influential he had been in the Trump administration’s recent congressional wins.
He played a critical role in getting Republicans to pass the sprawling tax, immigration, and Medicaid cut law the GOP dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” earlier this month, and was on Capitol Hill this week negotiating the final Senate agreement to get this rescissions bill passed with reluctant Republican senators before a Friday deadline. The final deal left out planned Trump administration cuts for PEPFAR, a global anti-AIDS program, but codified the rest of the package.
The Senate passed a bill to formalize $9 billion in spending cuts early Thursday morning, including major clawbacks of foreign aid and a slashing of government funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. The final bill needs to once again pass the GOP-controlled House, a formality which is expected to happen in the next day. If the bill had not passed, the money included in the spending would have been returned to the administration, which would have had to spend it.
Mr. Vought said that he and his team were “very excited” about their pending congressional win. And he said that more is on the way – saying another rescissions package is “likely to come soon,” while declining to discuss specifics of timing or content.
And he made it clear he was enjoying himself. “We’re having fun,” he said about his work.
Mr. Vought touched on various government cuts, and policy and constitutional concerns raised by some congressional Republicans about his proposed plans, and discussed his sharp criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Here’s what he had to say in his hour-long breakfast with reporters.
On withholding education funds
At the beginning of July, OMB withheld a reported $5 billion authorized in law to support state school districts’ summer programs, teacher training, adult learning, after-school programs, and education for migrant students.
On Wednesday, 10 Republican senators sent a letter to Mr. Vought demanding that the congressionally appropriated funds be released.
Mr. Vought said he thought the Republicans who signed the letter had “parochial reasons for supporting the spending,” and said that the funds were currently “under programmatic review,” claiming that the programs were “riddled” with “critical race theory funding.”
“We have concerns with these programs. They’re the ones that we’re going to study the most, and we’re going through that process. It’s multiyear funding. We’ve got a lot going on. We’re aware of the senators’ opinions, and we do take them seriously,” he said.
In defending the move, Mr. Vought offered insight into his strategic approach to Congress – and his own temperament.
“What I have often found is, until you take a hard line with regard to a particular program, the debate doesn’t really start,” he said. “Until you say, ‘we’re reviewing this,’ it misses some kind of commonly expected deadline – that’s when you actually have an opportunity to get in a room with someone and say, ‘Have you seen what this program funds? We think you’d be very concerned about it.’”
On “pocket rescissions”
Mr. Vought has floated the idea of using “pocket rescissions” to refuse to spend more money that had already been appropriated by Congress. The plan would have President Trump issue a request to claw back funding like the rescissions plan that’s about to pass Congress, but send it within 45 days of the Oct. 1 fiscal new year. The administration would then treat that money as expired when that date arrives, regardless of what Congress does.
The Government Accountability Office, the executive branch’s top watchdog, has said it would be unlawful to do so.
Some Republicans agree: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins told Politico last month that she thought pocket rescissions were “illegal… and contradict the will of Congress and the constitutional authority of Congress to appropriate funds.”
Mr. Vought said the option is one of the legitimate “executive tools” that’s “on the table.” He added, “We certainly want to bring in Congress where we can. But … the president was elected to get us to balance, to deal with our fiscal situation, and we’re going to use all of the tools that are there depending on the situation and as we move through the year.”
On why Congress “has to be less bipartisan”
Democrats – and some Republicans – have warned that passing the rescissions package will make it much harder for them to cut a deal to avoid a government shutdown this fall.
The fiscal year expires Oct. 1, and Democrats have pointed out that they have much less impetus to work on a deal to avoid a government shutdown if they can’t trust that any funds they secure for programs they value will actually be spent by the administration. The legislation will take a supermajority of 60 votes and need some Democratic support because of Senate rules.
Mr. Vought scoffed at the idea that this was a valuable process.
“Who ran and won on an agenda of a bipartisan appropriations process? Literally no one. No Democrat, no Republican. There is no voter in the country that went to the polls and said, ‘I’m voting for a bipartisan appropriations process,’” he said.
“The appropriations process has to be less bipartisan. We’re $37 trillion in debt, and we produce CRs [continuing resolutions] every year,” he said. “I actually think that over time, if we have a more partisan appropriations process for a time, it will lead to more bipartisanship.”
His argument is that if rescissions, pocket rescissions, and the executive branch impounding spending are on the table, “The only game in town is the actual budget process working.”
He argued the administration refusing to spend congressionally appropriated money is in line with the U.S. Constitution.
“We are not saying that the power of the purse does not belong with Congress. It absolutely does. It is one of the most constitutional foundational principles. But … It’s a ceiling. It is not a floor. It is not the notion that you have to spend every last dollar of that,” he said.
On his criticism of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
Mr. Vought has been harshly critical of Fed Chairman Powell, whom Mr. Trump appointed seven years ago but now often criticizes sharply.
Mr. Vought echoed his boss in expressing frustration that the Fed has kept interest rates high, making it more expensive to borrow money and slowing the economy, because of concerns that Mr. Trump’s threatened tariffs are fueling further inflation.
“Our main concern with the Fed is that they’re always late” on adjusting interest rates, Mr. Vought said.
President Trump has toyed with the idea of firing Mr. Powell, though it’s unclear whether he has the constitutional authority to do so.
Both he and Mr. Vought have blamed Mr. Powell for cost overruns on work being done on the Federal Reserve Building, a seeming pretext for possibly firing him.
“They can’t even do a building right,” Mr. Vought said.
He’s been pushing for an investigation. “We’re hoping for answers, we’re hoping for a site visit in the next week or so at the Fed,” he said.
But Powell’s term is up in eight months, and on Wednesday Mr. Trump said he wasn’t likely to fire him before then, which Mr. Vought pointed out.
Editor’s note: This article was expanded after its initial publication on July 17.
