The Senate confirmed Russell Vought to lead President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget — an agency set to wield immense power and influence across the federal government.
Republican senators confirmed Vought as OMB director on a party-line vote of 53-47 on Thursday night. Vought, who led the OMB during the first Trump administration and is a Project 2025 co-author, has a long track record of advocating for slashing government agencies and scaling back federal bureaucracy.
Republican senators pointed to Vought’s prior experience in Trump’s OMB as reason why they see him as a good fit for the job.
“He knows what he’s doing. It’s like this administration, right?” Sen. Markwayne Mullin told NOTUS. “They hit the ground running because they’ve been there, done that. He’s going to be the same way.”
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Sen. Joni Ernst laughed as she told NOTUS that Vought will be a “great” OMB director.
“He’s got a great level of attention to detail, and I do think he’s going to do a really good job for us to protect the taxpayers,” Ernst said.
The OMB is poised to play an outsize role in the Trump administration — even without a confirmed head for the department, it issued a memo to freeze federal funding in the first days of the Trump administration, causing widespread panic about what funds would be affected. The freeze is currently blocked in court, but the White House press secretary has pointed to conversations “the incoming director of OMB” had with the administration about the guidance.
The chaotic rollout of the proposed funding freeze did not slow down Vought’s confirmation.
Democratic senators staged a protest by holding the floor in shifts from Wednesday through the night until Vought’s final confirmation vote Thursday — and protesting as they cast their opposing votes. But Democrats didn’t have enough power to stop his confirmation, and Republicans remained united behind it.
Democrats also hammered Vought during his confirmation hearing for his involvement in Project 2025, even as he tried to distance himself from it. Neither Vought’s association with the project nor the funding freeze was enough to prevent him from joining the administration.
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Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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