Rocks and Hard Places
Vought Back on Attack
Just as lawmakers are racing to reach an agreement on how to fund the government beyond next Friday’s funding deadline, OMB Director Russ Vought has jumped into the picture to remind Congress how little he cares for the laws it passes.
This week, the Administration launched a massive review of nearly all federal funding going to 14 states (including D.C.) – all but one led by a Democrat – with the implication that those funds will soon be frozen by an illegal and unconstitutional impoundment. This action follows last week’s freeze of nearly $2 billion from mental health and substance abuse programs across the country and a freeze of child care funding across five states – all controlled by Democrats – the week before (which today was blocked in federal court again; see the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ just released report here).
The Administration claims to be “fighting fraud” as its stated rationale for this latest action, but it comes as President Trump said he would withhold “significant” federal funding from all sanctuary cities and the states that oversee them beginning on February 1st. The obvious point bears repeating still – these plans are all illegal as a violation of the Impoundment Control Act, just as they were when OMB Director Vought started his campaign against Congress’s power of the purse a year ago.
The timing of Vought’s actions is as interesting as the substance. Vought knows that Congress is currently debating a funding agreement with bills that include language and stipulations designed to constrain OMB. He also knows that in a month, he will be asked to come to Congress to testify about the President’s upcoming FY27 budget (now expected in March). So, while Congress is taking bipartisan action to put funding guardrails in place, they’ll need that same bipartisan support to enforce those provisions, as it’s clear that Vought couldn't care less.
Senate May Slip on ICE
The Senate is slated to take up a six-bill minibus next week ahead of the January 30 funding deadline, and absent the House coming back from a scheduled recess, the only alternative to passage is a government shutdown. However, that possibility has grown somewhat more likely in just the last few hours as several Democratic Senators have come out in opposition to the DHS funding bill as written, amidst ICE’s extremely violent and unconstitutional tactics in Minnesota.
The challenge for Congress is that even during a lapse in annual appropriations for the DHS bill, ICE will continue to operate using resources approved by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The shutdown, whether it’s from the agencies in one bill or six, would also allow OMB Director Vought to restart his reductions-in-force campaign that was halted by statute when the government reopened in mid-November.
Given the coming winter storm this weekend, the Senate will not come back into session until Tuesday. When it does, we’ll be following the events as they unfold.
