Ranking Member Raskin and Rep. Stansbury’s Statement on Russell Vought’s Nomination to Lead the Office of Management and Budget

Washington, D.C. (November 23, 2024)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, issued the following statement following Donald Trump’s selection of Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB):

“After vehemently denying his links to Project 2025 through the campaign, the President-elect just tapped its lead architect, Russell Vought, to run his coming all-of-government purge as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.  

“Vought wants to dismantle the expert federal workforce, replacing qualified, nonpartisan federal employees with sycophants selected not for their merit but for their willingness to place party and personal loyalty over their constitutional oaths of office.  Vought’s agenda would inflict massive harm on the tens of millions of Americans who rely on federal workers to provide health care at the VA, Social Security checks to their parents, infrastructure aid to local governments, and financial assistance to small businesses.  In his own words, Vought wants our federal workers to be ‘traumatically affected,’ no matter the costs added to our economy or the problems imposed on the American people.  Pain is itself the agenda. 

“As Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought oversaw the largest government shutdown in our nation’s history, carried out a Trump executive order to halt diversity initiatives in federal government, and tried to implement Trump’s assault on the expert, non-partisan civil service through an executive order called ‘Schedule F’—which he said he would revive on ‘day one’  in the next administration.  And he is now urging the incoming president to move aggressively and with little regard for the law under a ‘radical constitutional perspective’ to dismantle and replace the federal workforce.

“As Democratic Members of the House Oversight Committee, the headquarters of resistance to this plan, we will fight Vought’s radical agenda, act to protect vital government services the American people depend on, and stand up to defend our fellow citizens who are honorable federal workers every step of the way.”