Hearing Highlights: Russ Vought Ducks Concerns He Plans to Cut Social Security, Medicare and Fire Civil Servants

Washington D.C. – During today’s U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs confirmation hearing for Russ Vought, the President-elect’s choice to return as Director of Office of Management and Budget failed to quell concerns about the incoming Trump administration’s intent of cutting Social Security and Medicare, Trump’s embrace of unpopular Project 2025 blueprint for gutting government services, or his plans to weaponize the government. 

Here Are Key Questions Vought Failed to Answer Today: 

Cuts To Social Security And Medicare

• Why should the American people believe Vought will not once again try to cut Social Security and Medicare, as he did before at the helm of OMB? In December 2024, President-elect Trump claimed he was “‘not touching’” federal entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. But, while Vought led OMB during the first Trump administration, he was central to Trump’s proposals to slash these critical programs, which have near-universal support from Americans who rely on them in their later years.After Vought became OMB’s acting director in January 2019, his office prepared then-President Trump’s FY2020 budget proposals to gut Medicaid by $1.5 trillion, Medicare by $845 billion, and Social Security by $25 billion over the following decade. Then, for FY2021, Vought’s OMB issued the President’s budget proposing a $451 billion cut to Medicare over the following decade. This follows Vought’s decades-long history of efforts to gut Social Security, Medicare, and other critical social programs.

Project 2025 Architect

• Did Vought ever discuss any aspect of Project 2025 with then-candidate Trump, his campaign, or his transition team? Vought wrote a significant chapter on reforming the Executive Office of the President in Project 2025, the radical and “deeply unpopular” plan to gut the federal government. Vought’s prescriptions included imposing more political control over federal agencies, using “every possible tool” to “impose fiscal discipline,” and pushing what he called “fearless” challenges to settled legal precedents.President-elect Trump “repeatedly disavowed” Project 2025 and he “falsely claimed he knew nothing about it or the people involved in it.” Despite the President-elect’s efforts to distance himself from the effort, it strains belief that he was not aware of Vought’s central efforts to draw up the extreme policy plans for his next administration.

Pro-Weaponized Government

• Is President-elect Trump on board with Vought’s plans to expand presidential powers, including to allow the president to seek retribution of political opponents? As President-elect Trump announced Vought’s nomination to lead the OMB, Trump said Vought knows “exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.” Vought’s group, the Center for Renewing America, called its 2023 budget proposal “A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government.”However, the Center for Renewing America has drawn plans that would weaponize the federal government on an unprecedented scale, such as immediately invoking the Insurrection Act and impounding congressional funds for projects that the president-elect disfavors. Additionally, Vought also recommended invoking the Insurrection Act and deploying the military against the American people early in the second Trump administration to “to quash protests” by the President-elect’s political opponents. This would not be an empty threat, as Trump reportedly considered invoking the Insurrection Act twice during his first administration, first against Black Lives Matter protestors and then as he tried to cling on to power in the last days of his first term.Vought has also prescribed abandoning the Justice Department’s longstanding political independence and withholding funding appropriated by the people’s elected representatives in Congress from critical federal programs. Vought ironically deemed these plans to undermine democracy “‘radical constitutionalism.’”

Embrace of Extremists

• Does Vought plan to recruit extremist, election-denying figures into the second Trump administration?  Vought’s group, Center for Renewing America, has tapped multiple election conspiracy theorists in senior roles and fellowships. Most notably, Vought recruited former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark—who was criminally charged for allegedly working to overturn 2020 election results—as Director of Litigation and Senior Fellow.Vought also gave a fellowship to former FBI Agent Steve Friend, a Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist who was put on leave after refusing to engage in a SWAT raid against a dangerous Jan. 6 suspect who was accused of being connected to the extremist Three Percenter movement. Mr. Friend reportedly downloaded FBI documents without authorization and omitted key details from investigators.Vought has also personally shown an affinity toward right-wing extremism — once suggesting that extremist or hate groups designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are actually “effective groups who love America.” And Vought reportedly has “a close affiliation” with and has been “proud to work with” William Wolfe, a far-right figure who has argued that conservatives may soon need to “‘heed the call to arms.’”

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