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Senate Budget Committee presses OMB nominee on past fund impoundments and legal limits
Summary
During Russell Vought’s confirmation hearing to lead the Office of Management and Budget, senators repeatedly pressed him about his role in past impoundments of congressionally appropriated funds and whether he will comply with the Impoundment Control Act if confirmed.
Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to again lead the Office of Management and Budget, faced repeated questioning about his prior role in withholding congressionally appropriated funds and whether he would obey the Impoundment Control Act if confirmed.
The issue surfaced early in the hearing when Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the committee, said Vought “was, at the center of the strategy of impounding funds” and pressed him on whether he would rely on impoundment again rather than the statutory rescission process. Merkley added that Vought had told him privately he was “quite comfortable assuming that the law doesn't matter.”
The matter matters because the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 restricts the executive branch’s ability to withhold or delay spending that…
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