OMB Director Russ Vought is expected to play a major role during government shutdowns, including whether there will be any major layoffs.
Who is OMB Director Las Verto?
The office of Las Vault, director of management and budget, is a leading architect for Project 2025, and is driving the expanded enforcement power of Trump’s second term.
It was Las Vault who flocked with House Republicans on the first day of the government’s shutdown to tell them that a massive federal worker layoff would start in “a day or two.”
Vought, director of the White House Management and Budget office, was standing with White House Vice President JD Vance and the GOP leader.
It was a contest that President Donald Trump praised social media for helping him determine what would be cut during the closure and whether the cut would be permanent.
Vought, who helped create the Policy Blueprint, known as Project 2025, plays a major role during the shutdown. This includes decisions on whether there will be a massive layoff of federal employees in place of Furlough, which funds will be cut and what will flow.
Vought played a key role in Trump’s drastic attempt to assert power over the federal budget. Federal judges have stagnated many of these actions, but efforts are expected to escalate during the closure if the administration has broad authority to broadly direct which employees and programs are “essential” to the government in which they operate, and which is not.
Congressional Republicans say Congressional Democrats handed over spending powers to the White House by shutting down the government, resulting in the
Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, told Fox News on October 1. “Las Vote will succeed in empowering Trump.
He could not comment through the White House press.
On September 30, Trump was considering using the closure as an opportunity to implement major changes to the government without Congress’ approval.
He spoke about opportunities to take “irreversible” actions, such as reducing benefits, “cutting programs like (Democrats)” and “cutting budgets to levels that can’t be otherwise.” Trump also said, “A lot of good can come from closure.”
Who is Russ?
Vought, who will lead the agency during Trump’s first term, will be responsible for overseeing the president’s budget, reviewing federal regulations and prioritizing enforcement funding. This role, often under the public radar, is a role that has an important force in implementing the president’s goals.
After leaving Trump’s first administration, Vought established a center to renew America. This is one of the Washington think tanks created to advance and develop Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda. He previously worked for a public policy agency, Vice President of Heritage Action in the United States, and worked for Capitol Hill.
He is a key architect of the controversial policy blueprint known as Project 2025, many of which were implemented during Trump’s second term. Vought is recognized as having created a chapter on executive power.
During a Senate confirmation hearing, Vought cited bipartisan criticism for refusing to refuse to comply with Congressional Expenses Act, calling existing restrictions unconstitutional and pointing out that they would follow the president’s instructions.
Vought said that rather than determining federal spending, the role of Congress is to set the ceiling, and that the president believes he can choose to spend less.
Shutdown layoff
According to a report originally published by Politico, Vought has directed the agency to prepare plans or layoffs for all employees “not in line with the president’s priorities.”
Employees who are generally deemed “not essential” to government functions are determined to be resolute. The Enforcement Department typically does not use shutdowns as a reason for layoffs.
After the Senate failed to avoid the shutdown, Vought wrote to the federal agency saying “the affected agencies should implement an orderly shutdown plan.”
Democrats have rejected the threat of filing federal employees as threats or negotiation tactics. The administration began rehiring some of its tens of thousands of federal employees earlier this year.
“We are not threatened by a completely, completely out of control Las Vault…” New York Democratic leader Hakem Jeffries told reporters at a September 25th press conference. “As a negotiation tactic, our response to Las Vault is simple: we get lost.”
Funding reductions to democratic countries
Vought wasted no time meeting the threat of making Democrats pay a political price for shutting down governments.
Vought’s first social media post on October 1 said $18 million in transportation funds are pending for a project in New York, represented by both Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Vance was asked about timing and whether it was a strategy to narrow down New York to Schumer’s Cave.
“I’ve never spoken to Russ about this this morning, but looking at it, I’m sure Russ is heartbroken about the fact that he can’t give certain things to certain districts,” Vance said. “We want to do everything we can to help Americans, but when Democrats shut down the government, we have to do a bit of triage to make sure the most important and most important services are actually provided.”
Hours later, Vought announced it was cancelling funding for 16 Democratic-led state Green Energy Projects.
“Nearly $8 billion has been cancelled in green new fraud funds to fuel the climate agenda on the left,” Vought said in a social media post.
He said the cuts will affect California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, denounced “maphios tactics.”
“We’ve been less than a day for this closure, and Trump & Vault is illegally punishing Democratic-led states,” Murray told social media. “This administration clearly spits on opportunities to hurt people and uses the shutdown they caused as an excuse to do that.”
The government redirected funds in a similar way during the first Trump administration, and the government’s Accountability Office ruled it was a violation of anti-substantial law.
Previous government closures have not resulted in massive layoffs, and previous presidents have not used their time to make fundamental changes to the institution.
Matthew Spalding, a professor of constitutional government at Hillsdale University’s Washington DC campus, said whether Trump and Vauton are able to make permanent changes will bear details of what is being done.
“In general, there is nothing permanent because the three branches of constitutional government cannot limit the president or parliament of the future president or parliament,” he said.
On October 2nd, Trump posted on social media that “He of Project 2025’s fame decided that he was falling to decide which of many Democratic institutions is political fraud.”
“I can’t believe the radical left Democrats have given me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said.
