Only four sentences in a Feb. 11 memorandum signed by Vought were required, in the words of a senior administration official who asked not to be identified, to restore “accountability to OMB to ensure that [President Donald Trump’s] agenda is accomplished, and more money doesn’t sneak out the door.”
Vought’s move is significant because the OMB is the president’s chief tool for day-to-day management of how all federal departments and agencies carry out White House policy directives. Since its creation in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, the OMB’s program associate directors (PADs) have traditionally been career employees.
Now, under Vought, the PADs are political appointees with the authority to direct federal funding without the agreement of the career executives who previously would be making such decisions.
This is not the first time that Vought has empowered his top political deputies. In his brief eight-month tenure leading the OMB at the end of Trump’s first term, he took the same action, which prompted an outcry among congressional Democrats.
Then-House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) issued a Sept. 3, 2020, statement calling Vought’s action “a deliberate and disturbing step by the Trump Administration to consolidate power among political cronies, undermine Congress, and silence anyone who might stand in their way.”
But this time around, a search of LegiStorm’s archive of all congressional statements issued on and since Feb. 14 found none concerning political appointees’ budget allocation authorities within the OMB.
That’s not to say that Vought’s move isn’t generating opposition.
Faith Williams, director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program at the Project on Government Oversight, told The Epoch Times, “While this is not a new concept from Russell Vought, the decision to move apportionment decisions to political appointees could contribute to the politicization of OMB.”
Williams further noted that the OMB director has long been on record opposing the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which severely limits the ability of a chief executive to decline to spend funds as appropriated by Congress.
“The fundamental issue is not who at OMB wields allocation authority, but whether they do so in a lawful way. OMB Director Vought has made clear he does not intend to follow the law and will trespass on Congress’s power of the purse in violation of statute,” Schuman said.
Spokespersons for the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers’ union, and the National Treasury Employees Union did not respond to requests for comment.
The two unions have been vocal about their opposition to Trump’s promise to reduce the size and cost of the federal workforce, which currently numbers approximately 2.3 million employees.
Spokespersons for two major federal employee associations—the Senior Executives Association and the Federal Managers Association—also did not respond to requests for comment on Vought’s action.
