Senate Democrats are demanding that Republicans postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday on Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, after the budget office on Monday issued a broadly worded memo freezing large swaths of federal assistance.
They called the memo a major infringement on congressional funding authority and demanded their Senate Republican colleagues hold Vought in committee until the Trump administration backs off on its attempt to freeze federal assistance.
“Trump’s actions would wreak havoc in red and blue communities everywhere. This is funding that communities are expecting, and this memo is creating chaos and confusion,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
“I am urging the Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fellow appropriator, to hold Russ Vought’s nomination that’s supposed to occur this Thursday,” Murray declared. “Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.”
That demand was backed by Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee.
“We have a constitutional crisis,” Merkley declared, arguing “the president is not a king” and “a law is not a suggestion.”
He said Democrats on the Budget Committee “are going to call upon the postponement, the two-week postponement of Mr. Vought’s confirmation in committee, vote in committee, until we answer these questions and resolve this constitutional crisis.”
A spokesperson for Graham told The Hill the Budget panel “will proceed with Mr. Vought’s nomination as scheduled.”
The committee is scheduled to vote on him Thursday.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the memo from the White House budget office had “plunged the country into chaos,” warning that freezing federal assistance would reverberate across a range of federal programs.
“The Trump administration announced a halt to virtually all federal funds across the country. In an instant, Donald Trump has shut off billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that directly support states, cities, towns, schools, hospitals, small businesses and most of all American families.”
Schumer said New York State Attorney General Letitia James would lead a lawsuit to be filed in the Southern District of New York to challenge Trump’s order.
“Just like the Jan. 6 pardons, this decision is lawless, dangerous, destructive, cruel. It’s illegal, unconstitutional. I spoke to my attorney general this morning, she’s head of the state attorneys general association. They’re going to court right away on this horror,” he said.
