Russell Vought, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the White House budget office, downplayed his past comments about the usefulness of shutting down the federal government to achieve conservative policy aims.
Vought, under pointed questioning from Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), said he would seek to avoid future government shutdowns as director of the Office of Management and Budget, drawing a scoff from Hassan.
“You have repeatedly, Mr. Vought, called for brinksmanship around government shutdown and opposed bipartisan deals to keep the government open,” Hassan said.
“In 2011, for example, you wrote in an article that Republicans must simply be prepared to shut the government down … and need to dig deep and embrace the sort of brinksmanship that shows they are playing to win,” she added.
“If confirmed, you’d play a role in negotiations to avoid a government shutdown later this spring. Why have you repeatedly advocated the use of a government shutdown as a bargaining chip?” she asked.
Vought said Hassan was mischaracterizing his position on respecting the need to keep the government open.
“Senator, I don’t think I have been a person that has wanted to have government shutdowns. I’ve had to be the one that kept the government open consistent with the law for the longest shutdown in history. I know the impact it has on the federal government,” he said, referring to the 35-day shutdown during Trump’s first term that was sparked by a fight over funding the southern border wall.
Vought was acting director of the White House budget office during that time.
“I want to be a part of a process that sends budgets [to Congress] as soon as they can, meeting all statutory deadlines, to be able to start the process as early as possible … so you don’t have the kind of pileups at the end of the fiscal year that we have seen,” he said.
He said he hoped the appropriations process in Congress would be restored to regular order under Trump’s second term, which he would look forward to participating in.
But Hassan wasn’t buying his answer as a sincere one.
“Unfortunately, this is a situation where there seems to be kind of a confirmation conversion because your words in articles and talks reflect a different view about the use of government shutdowns,” she said.
