White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought is asking Senate Republicans whether they are “serious” about fiscal responsibility before the chamber votes next week on legislation that would claw back spending Congress has already approved.
“I am confident that they will pass the bill,” Vought told the Washington Examiner on Friday at the White House. “I’ll be up there on Tuesday to answer any additional questions.”
Vought described the rescission bill as “a very important step for Congress to show that they are willing to pass the DOGE cuts,” abbreviating the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Is Congress serious about passing and making the DOGE cuts permanent, or are we going to have to continue to use our executive tools on that?” he asked.
The rescissions bill, which the House passed last month in a 214-212 vote and continues to be negotiated by the Senate, would claw back $9.4 billion previously appropriated by Congress for international aid, media, and other programs. The bill includes $8.3 billion for the United States Agency for International Development for peacekeeping, refugee, and climate programs. It also covers $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.
“We have been talking in this town as conservatives, as Republicans, about defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a very long time,” Vought said. “We are now on the verge of being able to do that, and it’s important that we finally take that opportunity, and not fall back into kind of the tired, old excuses that have defended that program for so long.”
Simultaneously, Vought conceded the Senate vote will be “tight” but remained adamant “that margin has to produce a victory.”
“We have other rescission packages that we will send if we have a good vote,” he said. “Next week may be a huge pivot point in how this town does business and will be an exciting milestone to be able to make actual permanent reductions to some of these savings that we’ve identified as an administration.”
Vought spoke to reporters at the White House as he seeks to ramp up pressure on another independent body in Washington, D.C.: the Federal Reserve. The director has pledged to investigate the Fed over the $2.5 billion renovation to its headquarters in the capital’s downtown area under the National Capital Planning Act and the National Capital Planning Commission.
“We will be asking tough questions with regard to the Fed, but this is about the president being offended at cost overruns,” he said. “He’s a developer, and the size of this project is something that should never have moved forward.”
At the same time, Vought defended President Donald Trump‘s own spending on renovations to the White House Rose Garden and to an airplane presented to him by Qatar that will become a temporary Air Force One.
“We need ships, we need aircraft,” he said. “We need a new presidential plane that’s been in the works and been delayed for a long time because contractors are behind, and so that doesn’t mean we don’t spend where we need to spend. But we’ve always offered up a fiscal picture that gets to balance, that reduces the deficit, that deals with our debt, and we’re doing it in a host of ways.”
Vought’s investigation into the Fed coincides with Trump’s escalation in complaints that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is not lowering interest rates fast enough. The president has nicknamed Powell “Too Late” as names circulate about possible replacements, including National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Vought, however, declined to speculate.
“Those are announcements that he will make at the appropriate time when he’s ready to do it,” he said.
WHITE HOUSE ESCALATES WAR ON POWELL WITH INQUIRY INTO $700M OVERRUN ON FED HQ
Vought similarly defended Trump from criticism that he is eroding the independence of the Fed through his public pressure campaign.
“The president has a policy view with regard to we need lower rates. He has a policy view with regard to the fact that Jerome Powell has been late repeatedly,” he said. “It’s just a series of mismanagement. I know you guys want to make it more about a metaphysical question about the independence of the Fed. This is about the extent to which this building, this renovation project, is horrifying from a cost perspective.”