OMB Director Russell Vought has long avoided accountability for his role in the destruction of the federal government. The American people deserve answers.
This article was originally published in Watchdog Weekly. Read it here.
During the nomination hearings at the start of the second Trump administration, we published a series of newsletters recommending critical lines of questioning for the individuals poised to steer various segments of the sprawling executive branch apparatus. For Russell Vought, who now directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), we proposed focusing on his significant involvement in Project 2025, his desire to arbitrarily fire and traumatize federal workers, and his repeated targeting of federal programs that assist the most vulnerable amongst us.
Now, a year into his role as OMB director, Vought is on course to achieve all we warned of. He’s overseen widespread reductions in force and resignations that have led more than 270,000 employees to leave the federal government. He’s helped over 50% of Project 2025 objectives come to fruition. Following the departure of Elon Musk, he has carried on the DOGE legacy of decimating the federal agencies that aim to protect the American people from fraudsters, pollution, workplace injuries, environmental disasters, and more.
Vought, in other words, is the architect and executor of the Trump administration’s destruction of the federal government. As a self-avowed Christian Nationalist, he embodies the cruelest visions of all the extreme elements of the right-wing, making him essential to the success of the Republican governing project now and in the future. It’s a level of influence that must be communicated plainly and incessantly to the public.
This week is an opportunity for members of the House to assume that responsibility in earnest. Vought will be before the House and Senate Budget Committees to testify about the White House budget request issued (several weeks late) at the start of April. While the budget is functionally a messaging document, since it’s unlikely to be made law, it’s still important to apprise the public of the administration’s callous designs.
Moreover, Vought’s perverse belief that executive branch prerogatives supersede Congress’s power of the purse is enough reason to harp on even the most remote scenarios. Additionally, he may yet reveal his legally dubious strategies for enacting this budget. So he definitely has a lot to answer for regarding the unjustifiable proposal to cut 10% of non-defense spending while ballooning the defense budget by 44% to $1.5 trillion dollars.
Members of Congress must also use this all-too-rare opportunity to grill Vought under oath on his role in the vast harms this administration has caused. The budget hearings should serve as a starting point for aggressive congressional oversight that might culminate if and when a governing anti-Trump coalition emerges in Congress. Considering Vought’s fingerprints are all over the Trump administration’s agenda, every committee in the House and Senate has cause to haul him before the public. It’s time to bring Vampire Vought into the sunlight and help the American people learn about the man who has caused them so much pain. Here are some questions we’d like to ask him.
A 2025 report by the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general found that “ninety-four percent of facilities reported severe occupational staffing shortages for Medical Officer occupations, and 79 percent of facilities reported severe shortages for Nurse occupations.” Still, as a part of your mission to traumatize the federal workforce, the V.A. “eliminated thousands of medical positions that were left vacant after a wave of resignations and retirements last year,” according to the New York Times. Consequently, there are nearly 14,400 unfilled medical positions in the department’s health care division. This has left tons of veterans adrift as they are now forced to endure unreasonable wait times to access much needed mental health care services. Do you think veterans should have to wait up to one whole year for a therapy session? Do you think a traumatized and overburdened workforce can capably provide our veterans with quality care and support they need?
- This is your first time testifying before this committee, upending years of precedent for the OMB Director, despite repeated requests from Democratic members. This flies in the face of White House claims to be the “most transparent administration in history.” Will you commit to coming before this and other committees when members on either side of the aisle have pressing questions about the administration?
- The Office of Personnel Management canceled its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which tracks the satisfaction of federal workers and agency performance. However, a survey from the Partnership for Public Service, administered to replace this lost public service, shows a widespread decline in satisfaction and performance of services to Americans. Do you view this as a success in your goal to put federal workers “in trauma”? What do you have to say to Americans who relied on these public workers to get access to veterans health care, social security assistance, and so much more?
- Your office recently published the President’s budget. It calls for a 10% reduction in non-defense spending and a massive, 44% increase in military spending. The President himself recently said we don’t have money for child care, Medicare, and Social Security because we need to pay for wars. Did you recommend these cuts to social services to the President as a way to pay for the numerous foreign wars he’s started without congressional approval?
- When drafting the budget, how much input did the heads of agencies—those who have the most direct knowledge and experience of their agency needs—have in the budget making process? Have you, as OMB Director, mandated agencies to either propose or institute cuts against leadership recommendations?
- Under the direction of Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security instituted a mandatory review of all grants and contracts valued over $100,000. This led to delays in over a thousand Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awards and billions of dollars needed to help American communities prepare for and recover from disasters. In fact, when the West Coast faced repeated bouts of flooding this past December, Noem sat on tens of millions of dollars in flood prevention grants that may have attenuated damages. This policy was a functional impoundment of congressionally mandated funds—an effort you have spearheaded across federal agencies. Were you involved in Noem’s decision to institute this review?
- In the first 14 months of this administration, President Trump approved just 23 percent of disaster aid requests from states led by a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, 66 percent lower than the 89 percent approval rate for requests emanating from states led by a Republican governor and two Republican senators. These denials have prevented “blue states” from accessing up to $250 million worth of critical emergency assistance funds. Have you advised President Trump in his decisions to decline or delay billions of emergency funds to states led by Democratic officials? How many decisions does your office make about the allocation of federal resources based on either the partisan affiliation of a state or the political agenda of a state’s elected leadership?
- President Trump’s budget claims to “support American workers,” but you recommend $234 million in cuts to worker protection agencies because they fund “questionable activities such as ‘workers’ rights training,’ for migrant farmworkers.” Do you believe workers should not be informed of their rights? Doesn’t this contradict the claim that the Department of Labor will be emphasizing “outreach, education, and assistance” rather than penalties for lawbreakers? Does the Labor Department plan to reduce the financial penalties against companies that put their workers at serious risk of injury, steal their wages, or otherwise violate their rights?
- The administration’s immigration policies have already facilitated the exploitation of undocumented workers under the false, xenophobic pretense that this will uplift American workers, but your cuts to Labor Department enforcement efforts makes it clear the administration is not actually intent on protecting workers, regardless of status, from wage theft and workplace safety violations. How does reducing enforcement efforts against lawbreaking employers support American workers?
- The shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was a key objective of your demolition agenda despite warnings that it would likely lead to the death of millions all over the world. According to the Impact Counter’s analysts, who modeled the effects of USAID cuts up until January 20, 2026, close to 800,000 people have died as a result of this shutdown, a majority of them children. Considering both Elon Musk and your collective failures to tackle actual “waste, fraud, and abuse” as de-facto leaders of DOGE and your apparent Christian faith, how would you explain this decision to punish so many innocent children?
- You reportedly met with House Financial Services Republicans behind closed doors to justify your plans to hollow out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement, supervision, fair lending, and civil rights offices, but are still yet to fulfill your obligations to testify under oath before the full committee. Do you believe the American people are not deserving of an explanation of your plans to leave them increasingly vulnerable to financial fraud and abuse?
- Under your leadership, the CFPB has permanently dismissed over 20 previously filed public enforcement actions, including against repeat offenders such as Capital One Bank, Wells Fargo, TransUnion, and student loan servicer American Education Services. The Bureau has also prematurely terminated, vacated or declined to enforce at least 20 consent orders, including an action against Navy Federal Credit Union, which had been ordered to “refund more than $80 million to consumers, stop charging illegal overdraft fees, and pay a $15 million civil penalty.” Do you believe financial companies should be free to break the law, readily abusing and exploiting American consumers without fear of any federal repercussions? Do you fashion yourself to be a reverse Robin Hood, snatching away cheated consumers’ hard fought redresses to enrich lawbreaking corporations?
Image Credit: Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem meets with Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Sept. 18, 2025. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour)