Latest news with #OMB
E&E News
a day ago
- Business
- E&E News
Russ Vought plans to make DOGE cuts permanent
The Trump administration has plans to advance its desired spending cuts even if Congress won't cooperate, the head of the White House budget office said in an interview Sunday. Russ Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, described the White House's plans to use 'executive tools' if necessary to cut federal spending. Vought's comments to CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday came as the administration is pushing Congress to formalize some of the cuts made by the DOGE government-slashing operation through a 'rescissions' bill. Asked whether the administration intends to ask Congress for approval for all the cuts done by DOGE, Vought replied, 'We might. We want to see how this first bill does. We want to make sure it's actually passed.' It represents the 'first of many rescissions bills,' he said. Advertisement Beyond using that process to formalize cuts through Congress, Vought said, 'we have executive tools.'
E&E News
a day ago
- Business
- E&E News
Trump revives efforts to kill Chemical Safety Board
The Trump administration is attempting to once again eliminate the small agency charged with investigating dangerous chemical accidents and releases. According to a supplement released Friday by the Office of Management and Budget, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board would be 'permanently cancelled' by the end of September 2026. The proposal to eliminate the board's funding is 'part of the Administration's plans to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government,' the supplement says. Advertisement It's not the first time President Donald Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought have tried to axe CSB.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vought says Trump may not need Congress's approval to cut federal workforce
Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump's massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk. Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on 'executive tools' for all but a 'necessary' fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval. The White House budget director, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, also defended the widespread future cost-cutting proposed by the US president's One Big Beautiful Bill act that was passed by the House last week, which covers budget proposals for the next fiscal year starting in October. Related: US budget chief calls fears that cuts to benefits will lead to deaths 'totally ridiculous' But, as Dana Bash, CNN's State of the Union host, pointed out, Doge cut 'funding and programs that Congress already passed'. And while those cuts, cited by the departing Musk as being worth $175bn, are tiny compared with the trillion or more he forecast, Vought said OMB was only going to submit about $9.4bn to Congress this week for sign-off. That amount is understood to mostly cover the crushing of the USAID agency and cuts to public broadcasting, which have prompted outrage and lawsuits. Leaders of Congress from both parties have pressed for the Trump administration to send details of all the cuts for its approval. 'Will you?' Bash asked Vought. 'We might,' Vought said, adding that the rest of the Doge cuts may not need official congressional approval. As one of the architects of Project 2025, the rightwing initiative created to guide the second Trump administration, Vought is on a quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the US president, and to continue the Doge cuts. Vought said that one of the executive tools the administration has is the use of 'impoundment', which involves the White House withholding specific funds allocated by Congress. Since the 1970s, a law has limited the presidency from engaging in impoundment – typically requiring the executive branch to implement what Congress signed into law. Bash said: 'I know you don't believe that that is constitutional, so are you just doing this in order to get the supreme court to rule that unconstitutional?' Related: Stakes are high for US democracy as conservative supreme court hears raft of cases Vought said: 'We are not in love with the law.' But he also said, in response to criticism from some on Capitol Hill: 'We're not breaking the law.' Meanwhile, on the Big Beautiful bill, the Congressional budget office (CBO) and many experts say it could swell the US deficit by $3.8tn, and business tycoon Musk said it 'undermines the work the Doge team is doing'. Vought disagreed. 'I love Elon, [but] this bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt,' he said. Vought – and later on Sunday, the House speaker Mike Johnson on NBC – argued that critics' calculations don't fully account for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and slashing regulation. Vought also chipped in that Trump is 'the architect, the visionary, the originator of his own agenda', rather than the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for the administration, Project 2025, although he did not deny that the two have dovetailed.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Official Backpedals as Wild ‘Trauma' Plot Exposed
President Donald Trump's budget chief got cornered for saying government workers deserve to be 'in trauma.' 'We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,' Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought had said in remarks obtained by ProPublica. 'When they wake up in the morning. We want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.' 'We want to put them in trauma,' Vought added. CNN host Dana Bash took Vought to task for the remarks in an interview Sunday. 'Is that your goal as OMB director?' she asked. Vought attempted to backpedal, accusing Bash of having 'jerry-picked' his quotes. 'What I was referring to there was the bureaucracy,' he said. 'We do believe there is weaponized bureaucracy. We do believe that there are people who have been part of administrations that are fundamentally woke and weaponized against the American people.' Vought went on to further qualify his comments by insisting he believes there are 'great people' in his department as well as at the Federal Aviation Authority and the National Institutes of Health, who he says 'are doing hard work and important public service activities.' Having chastised Bash for not providing 'the full context' of his comments, Vought continued to rail against the "Deep State." 'We're not going to be pushed, receive push-back from the notion that we're going to dramatically change the deep woke and weaponized administrative state,' Vought said. His interview with CNN comes as Elon Musk steps back from his role as head of DOGE, which is estimated to have cut up to two million jobs from the federal workforce over the past several months. As OMB director, Vought has been critical in implementing that initiative's goals, and is even rumored to be tipped to replace Musk as its chief. He was also one of the authors of the Heritage Foundation's notorious Project 2025 report, which offered a blueprint for Trump's second term that included, among other things, slashing the federal government back to the bone.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Vought says Trump may not need Congress's approval to cut federal workforce
Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump's massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk. Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on 'executive tools' for all but a 'necessary' fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval. The White House budget director, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, also defended the widespread future cost-cutting proposed by the US president's One Big Beautiful Bill act that was passed by the House last week, which covers budget proposals for the next fiscal year starting in October. But, as Dana Bash, CNN's State of the Union host, pointed out, Doge cut 'funding and programs that Congress already passed'. And while those cuts, cited by the departing Musk as being worth $175bn, are tiny compared with the trillion or more he forecast, Vought said OMB was only going to submit about $9.4bn to Congress this week for sign-off. That amount is understood to mostly cover the crushing of the USAID agency and cuts to public broadcasting, which have prompted outrage and lawsuits. Leaders of Congress from both parties have pressed for the Trump administration to send details of all the cuts for its approval. 'Will you?' Bash asked Vought. 'We might,' Vought said, adding that the rest of the Doge cuts may not need official congressional approval. As one of the architects of Project 2025, the rightwing initiative created to guide the second Trump administration, Vought is on a quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the US president, and to continue the Doge cuts. Vought said that one of the executive tools the administration has is the use of 'impoundment', which involves the White House withholding specific funds allocated by Congress. Since the 1970s, a law has limited the presidency from engaging in impoundment – typically requiring the executive branch to implement what Congress signed into law. Bash said: 'I know you don't believe that that is constitutional, so are you just doing this in order to get the supreme court to rule that unconstitutional?' Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Vought said: 'We are not in love with the law.' But he also said, in response to criticism from some on Capitol Hill: 'We're not breaking the law.' Meanwhile, on the Big Beautiful bill, the Congressional budget office (CBO) and many experts say it could swell the US deficit by $3.8tn, and business tycoon Musk said it 'undermines the work the Doge team is doing'. Vought disagreed. 'I love Elon, [but] this bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt,' he said. Vought – and later on Sunday, the House speaker Mike Johnson on NBC – argued that critics' calculations don't fully account for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and slashing regulation. Vought also chipped in that Trump is 'the architect, the visionary, the originator of his own agenda', rather than the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for the administration, Project 2025, although he did not deny that the two have dovetailed.
