The shadow dictator is devising new ways to concentrate spending power in the White House.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought has renewed his efforts to exert an iron grip over federal grantmaking, attempting to shift decision making from civil servants and experts to Trump’s political appointees. According to reporting from the Washington Post and others, Vought has emerged victorious in an internal White House battle over grantmaking at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Trump has reportedly directed Vought to draft an executive order that would create a Trump-appointed board at the NIH with veto power over funding decisions. It’s the latest in a long string of attempts by Vought and Trump to eschew Congress’ constitutional authority over federal appropriations and use their control of federal disbursements to punish perceived political enemies at Trump’s will.
As we’ve covered extensively in previous editions of Watchdog Weekly, Vought has operated in the shadows of the White House as the leading architect of its war on Congress’ power of the purse. Over the summer, Vought spearheaded an OMB effort to subject federal grantmaking to review by political executive branch appointees, opening the door for Vought and his allies to axe congressionally appropriated funds as they saw fit. The rule was temporarily thwarted by Congress after widespread outcry, specifically regarding the rule’s impact on unbiased scientific research. While the rumored executive order won’t have the same government-wide effects that the original OMB rule did, it targets the very types of grants that Congress sought to protect by blocking that rule.
To be clear, Vought and others in the administration have already exerted extensive political influence over federal grants. DOGE bros unilaterally cancelled countless grants and contracts that they considered to be “DEI.” Vought and Energy Secretary Chris Wright cancelled nearly 300 grants from the Department of Energy to punish states represented by Democrats and went on to lie about doing so before Congress. Health Secretary RFK Jr. directed the NIH to cancel over $40 million in grants for research related to autism. But while the politicization resulting from the executive order would not be an altogether new phenomenon, it would institutionalize a process of political influence over billions of dollars in scientific research funding despite Congress’ explicit objections.
According to Politico’s reporting, Vought and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who opposes the executive order, would sit on the NIH board overseeing grantmaking. It’s unclear who would make up the remainder of the board, but they will presumably align with Vought’s view on public health funding in order to override any objections from Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya, for his part, reportedly defied Trump’s wishes to cut the NIH’s grants to Harvard as part of the President’s continued vendetta against the university, leading Trump and Vought to begin drafting the executive order. For the record, Bhattacharya is not a shining beacon of scientific rigor; he gained prominence in MAGA-world for his opposition to efforts to control the COVID pandemic. It just goes to show how far one must stoop to remain in the President’s good graces.
If Vought ultimately gets his way, the consequences would be disastrous. As Aya Dardari wrote in a previous edition of this newsletter, Vought’s war on public health has been ongoing for some time under the guise of attacking “wokeism” and “fraud.” Under Vought’s direction, for example, the administration attempted to cut $600 million in CDC grants for sexually transmitted disease prevention and tracking in Democratic-led states, claiming the grants were cut due to a “history of fraud and mismanagement.”
The 2023 budget proposal from Vought’s Center for Renewing America can also give us an idea of his priorities. The proposal calls for an elimination of the NIH’s “woke bureaucracy” and “equity grants issued by the agency for the purpose of promulgating propagandized research,” basically meaning any research that mentions racial disparities or gender issues in public health. It goes on to say the NIH should end funding for gain-of-function research, close the National Institute on Minority Health Disparities, and end global health efforts at the agency’s Fogarty International Center.
While Vought would not be able to fully realize these goals with a grantmaking veto, he will surely use the power to axe any grants that would go toward similar programs. Vought will also accelerate Trump’s vindictive attempts to revoke funding destined for his perceived enemies, whether that be institutions like Harvard or entire states. Vought’s centrality in this latest weaponization of federal funds only amplifies the need for Congress to pursue his impeachment. As we’ve written in the past, and as former civil servants have been advocating for at ImpeachVought.com, Congress has ample justification to pursue impeachment for Vought’s repeated impoundment of federal funds. A new role overseeing the NIH’s grantmaking would only embolden Vought to further override congressional appropriations.
The current Congress’ Republican leadership has proven unwilling to challenge Vought, even as he seeks to make them a vestigial branch of government. But other members of Congress should be preparing evidence, document requests, whistleblower complaints—especially at the NIH if the executive order comes to fruition—and anything else that would prove useful in an investigation of Vought if Democrats regain power.
Vought is an important oversight target not only because of his current role in the Trump administration, but also because he serves as a figurehead for right-wing politics in a post-Trump world. Vought’s vision abhors justice and equality (sadly, that is neither caricature nor exaggeration). He is appalled by society helping the disadvantaged or causing any trouble for the economic elite. Relatedly, he is opposed to democracy insofar as it creates the possibility that Congress might impede the Christian nationalist or billionaire elites who ought to rule unshackled by laws they find constraining. If Congress wants to remain a co-equal branch of government or Americans to retain their democracy, they must take Vought’s threats to the Constitution seriously, first by doing everything in their power to prevent him from gaining control over the NIH and, ultimately, removing him from government through impeachment.
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