The US Senate has confirmed Russell Vought as budget director for the White House, putting an official who has worked to expand the powers of US President Donald Trump into one of the most influential positions in government.
Mr Vought was confirmed on a party-line vote of 53-47.
With the Senate chamber full, Democrats repeatedly tried to speak as they cast their “no” votes to give their reasons for voting against Mr Vought.
They were shut down by Florida Republican Ashley Moody, who was presiding over the chamber, citing rules that ban debate during votes.
The vote came after Democrats had exhausted their only remaining tool to stonewall a nomination — holding the Senate floor throughout the previous night and day with a series of speeches where they warned Mr Vought was Mr Trump’s “most dangerous nominee”.
God be praised. Grateful to the President and the US Senate. Incredibly thankful for all the many who prayed me through. Now. Let’s. Go. https://t.co/pjoD6M1OiG
— Russ Vought (@russvought) February 7, 2025
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech: “Confirming the most radical nominee, who has the most extreme agenda, to the most important agency in Washington… (is a) triple-header of disaster for hard-working Americans.”
Republicans have stayed in line to advance Mr Vought’s nomination and argued that his mindset will be crucial to slashing federal spending and regulations.
Senate majority leader John Thune pushed for his confirmation this week, saying he “will have the chance to address two key economic issues — cutting burdensome government regulations and addressing excessive spending.”
Mr Vought’s return to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which he helmed during Mr Trump’s first term, puts him in a role that often goes under the public radar yet holds key power in implementing the President’s goals.
The OMB acts as a nerve centre for the White House, developing its budget, policy priorities and agency rule-making.
Mr Vought has already played an influential role in Mr Trump’s effort to remake the federal government as one of the architects of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Mr Trump’s second term.
The budget office is also already shaking up federal spending.
It had issued a memo to freeze federal spending, which sent schools, states, and nonprofits into a panic before it was rescinded amid legal challenges.
After leaving the first Trump administration, he founded the Centre for Renewing America, part of a constellation of Washington think tanks that have popped up to advance and develop the Make America Great Again agenda.
From that position, Mr Vought often counselled congressional Republicans to wage win-at-all-costs fights to cut federal programs and spending.
Writing in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Mr Vought described the White House budget director’s job “as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind.”
The OMB, he declared, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”
“The president ran on the issue of fiscal accountability, dealing with our inflation situation,” he said.
Mr Vought has also unabashedly advanced “Christian nationalism,” an idea rising in the Republican party that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and the government should now be infused with Christianity.
In a 2021 opinion article, Mr Vought wrote that Christian nationalism is “a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society.”
