All posts tagged "Office Of Management And Budget"

Staffers inside Congress' most powerful watchdog are sounding the alarm as President Donald Trump weighs who should run their agency.

Trump is considering nominating Eric Ueland, the top deputy to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, to lead the Government Accountability Office as comptroller general, a post that carries a 15-year term, the Washington Sun reported Thursday, citing four people familiar with the discussions.

The pick would put an architect of the Trump administration's spending and workforce moves in charge of the agency that has repeatedly ruled some of those moves illegal. As OMB's number two, Ueland has overseen sweeping changes to the federal workforce, and he also serves as acting head of the Office of Government Ethics and largely dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development....

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) accused the Trump administration's budget office of breaking the law Friday after it moved to cancel $810 million in funding Congress had already approved.

In a statement, Collins said the administration sent over the package of so-called pocket rescissions with no advance notice, calling it the budget office's latest effort to chip away at Congress' authority over federal spending. The Office of Management and Budget is led by Russ Vought.

A pocket rescission exploits a quirk in the Impoundment Control Act, which lets the administration freeze funds for 45 days while Congress considers a cancellation request. A request sent near the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 can let the money expire before lawmakers act. This package arrived with five days left....

A Trump administration official found a way to quietly strangle federal programs by freezing congressionally approved spending, a legal expert warned.

In a Thursday piece for The Bulwark, economist Catherine Rampell called out the tactic used by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. She laid out how he's unilaterally withholding congressionally appropriated funds even though "his maneuvers are plainly illegal," Rampell wrote.

Vought's targets so far, Rampell wrote, include the Smithsonian, Community Development Financial Institutions, USAID, and medical research grants....

Senate Democrats are planning a full night of speeches in opposition to Russell Vought's nomination to head up the Office of Management and Budget.

Vought, who was instrumental in creating the right-wing to-do list "Project 2025," is expected to be confirmed in a vote Thursday evening. Democrats hope to stall the confirmation, however, by planning a marathon of speeches explaining why Vought is "dangerously unfit" for the job.

The all-nighter is being led by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as well as Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Brian Schatz (D-HI). The speeches got underway shortly after 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday. ...