Trump administration Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought testified before a Senate panel on Wednesday about defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other federal government programs totaling $9.4 billion in reduced spending.
“A vote for rescissions is a vote to show that the United States Senate is serious about getting our fiscal house in order,” he said.
Vought’s testimony was related to the rescissions package being considered by the Senate after it was passed in the House on June 12. The bill is based on budget reduction messages sent by President Donald Trump in accordance with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. A rescissions bill vote only needs a simple majority to pass in both the Senate and the House.
Vought’s testimony comes after the Trump administration has sought to reduce wasteful federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and other efforts.
The OMB chief testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
Schatz contended that Congress should write a separate bill to rescind the funds, rather than going ahead with the rescissions package.
“And so, if you have a problem with any of those programs, let [Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.] and I write a bill that prohibits the use of funds for any of those seemingly improper uses of funds,” Schatz said, adding: “That’s the way to do this.”
But Schmitt explained in his opening testimony: “What this package does cut is numerous instances of egregious examples of blatant government waste and abuse, just to name a few: $35 million to address vasectomy messaging frameworks and gender dynamics in Ethiopia; $3 million for Iraqi [version of] ‘Sesame Street’; half-a-million dollars for electric buses in Rwanda; $800,000 for transgender people, sex workers, and their clients and sexual networks in Nepal.”
Vought agreed, saying, “Most Americans would be shocked and appalled to learn that their tax dollars—money they thought was going to medical care—was actually going to far-left activism, population control, and sex workers.”
Schmitt said in his testimony that the reduction in funding for the CPB is for the next two fiscal years, fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, giving the corporation time to accommodate the potential loss of resources. The federal fiscal year 2026 begins on Oct. 1.
The House rescissions package would cut $1.1 billion in federal funding for the CPB. Additionally, $8.3 billion in foreign aid spending was approved for cutting in the package as well.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., contended that the president’s budget reduction would at the same time increase the staffing at the OMB.
“It’s just ironic that you’re building a backroom empire in OMB as you decry that constantly in the public square,” Reed said.
Vought responded to the criticism head-on: “[W]e’re talking about 20 career examiners, as if that is somehow going to break the bank and in particularly in your area, senator, we had one resource management organization that covers the entirety of the Department of Defense, the entirety of [the State Department] and foreign aid, the entirety of the intel community, the entirety of the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“That type of resource management organization needs more career examiners for to be able to continue to do the job that it does,” he said.
