Letter - People Power United joins coalition efforts to urge Senators to oppose the nomination of Russell Vought for director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

People Power United is a proud member of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards who sent a letter to the Senate opposing the nomination of Russ Vought for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

For Immediate Release

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS), EDF Action (advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund), the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), and dozens of signatories sent letters today calling on the Senate to reject President Donald Trump’s nominee to direct the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought. Vought is entirely unfit to serve as OMB director, the groups said.

The three letters and dozens of signatories reflect a groundswell of opposition to Vought from both the public and lawmakers in both parties who were alarmed by the brazen lawlessness displayed at his two confirmation hearings. At both hearings, Vought repeatedly asserted that when it comes to federal spending, he will advise President Trump to pursue actions that would apparently defy the law, Congress, Supreme Court precedents, and the U.S. Constitution – challenging the courts to stand in the way. In light of his remarks, a vote to confirm Vought is a vote to eliminate one of the oldest and most important checks and balances in the American system of government that stops presidents from becoming dictators.

“Vought was a key architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a dangerous policy blueprint that calls for concentrating extraordinary power in the Office of the President, thereby defeating our Constitution’s system of separation of powers and checks and balances,” the CSS letter reads. “Of particular alarm, he was the lead author of the chapter regarding OMB and regulatory policy, where the dangerous vision of unprecedented presidential power is articulated. If implemented, his radical and extreme ideological opposition to regulations that protect consumers, workers, the environment, and public health and safety will hurt Americans and their families and lead to more deregulatory disasters.”

“Beyond Vought’s plans to dismantle the performance-based civil service, Vought believes that ‘we are living in a post-Constitutional time.’ This translates into support for a series of policies that would make the president ever more powerful at the expense of Congress and the judiciary,” POGO’s letter reads. “Vought again affirmed his opinion that the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act — ironically the very law that created the Senate Budget Committee — is unconstitutional. It’s safe to assume Vought will assist President Trump to undermine and subvert Congress’s power of the purse.”

“Vought is not a run-of-the-mill nominee,” the letter signed by EDF Action and others reads. “His previous actions while leading OMB and his well-documented plans in Project 2025 for remaking how the federal government functions demonstrate his intent to chart a reckless path that will impact every area of US policy from reproductive health to the environment, from national security to Medicare and Medicaid. His record serves as a clear warning sign that he will continue to try to upset the constitutional balance of powers by working to expand executive powers to push a radical agenda without accountability.”

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