FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: KJ Boyle, boyle@therevolvingdoorproject.org
Today’s nomination hearing for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Deputy Director nominee Hal Duncan confirmed our concerns that Duncan will simply be a lackey in the most powerful office of this administration. Russell Vought and President Trump have transformed the office into a tool to disregard Congress as a coequal branch: eschewing oversight efforts, ignoring Government Accountability Office findings about its illegal impoundments, and looking to exert unprecedented political influence over federal grant making.
Duncan’s hearing proved he will be another henchman in carrying out this agenda, calling it the “honor of a lifetime” to work with Vought. In an ongoing theme for Trump appointees, Duncan also confirmed his loyalty to the President by refusing to deny that the 2020 election was rigged. Duncan’s testimony is yet another reminder of the danger Vought’s OMB poses to the separation of powers, but he has operated in the shadows for far too long.
“As OMB Deputy Director, Hal Duncan will serve as the mini-me for this administration’s primary villain, Russell Vought,” said RDP Executive Director Jeff Hauser. “Duncan’s testimony mirrored Vought’s utter contempt for both Congress as a constitutional partner and the civil servants that make up the federal government. His refusal to commit to opposing cronyism or partisanship in federal grant-making will only serve to further the corruption that has seeped into every corner of this administration to the detriment of the health and safety of the American people. Though they operate with a more polished veneer, Duncan and Vought’s continued chokehold of the federal government deserves the same scrutiny afforded to the DOGE bros during their deadly rampage.”
For more on Russell Vought’s reshaping of the federal government in his Christian nationalist vision, see our report V For Vampire Vought’s Vendetta.