In an appearance before a Senate panel Thursday to discuss President Trump’s 2027 budget request, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought warned lawmakers that the two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could threaten public safety as more employees quit their jobs.
“As of right now, the Department of Homeland Security is disintegrating because the secretary and I are having to figure out ways to temporarily fund people’s paychecks so we don’t have people quit and embark on new careers,” Vought said, referring to the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin.
President Trump has ordered DHS to use funds intended for other purposes to pay virtually all employees, but some key workers, including those at the Transportation Security Administration, have yet to receive all of the pay they are owed, and there is no certainty that salaries will continue to be paid moving forward if Congress fails to provide dedicated funding.
Vought told the Senate Budget Committee that he is already seeing signs that more DHS employees are leaving the department. “[S]ome of the things that we were seeing the weekend that Secretary Mullin took office was incredibly concerning,” he said. “We have to have a funding mechanism for the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Asked by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham if Congress continuing to fail to fund DHS would “put America at risk,” Vought said it would. Graham called on lawmakers to fix the problem immediately, saying, “What we're doing here is incredibly irresponsible, incredibly dangerous.”
Questions about the power of the purse: Vought was chastised by lawmakers in both parties over the White House’s refusal to spend certain congressionally appropriated funds.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told Vought that he has no legal right to hold back funds, including more than $810 million Congress provided to the Community Services Block Grant program, which the White House has frozen for review. “Congress has appropriated money, and you don’t have the authority to impound it,” Grassley said. “I want those quarterly allotments released.”
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said that, according to the Government Accountability Office, Vought has illegally impounded congressionally approved funds at least seven times. The law is clear, Warner said, that “if Congress appropriates, you've got to deliver these funds.”
Vought said some of the programs funded by Congress conflict with the administration’s agenda. Reminding Vought that he is not a legislator, Warner called on the budget director to obey the will of Congress. “Director Vought, if Congress had appropriated money for housing on Mars, my belief is your job is to administer, not make that judgment.”
Big deficit, no estimate: Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley noted that the White House had failed to provide a deficit projection for the president’s budget request, even though it is required by law.
Vought said that “it’s important not to confuse the country” about the budget numbers, given that there are efforts in Congress to pass a reconciliation bill that could affect any projections.
Merkley told Vought that, according to his analysis, the White House budget request, which seeks a massive increase in defense spending, would produce a deficit of about $2.2 trillion in fiscal year 2027. “I think perhaps the reason you didn't want to include deficit numbers is you didn't want to draw attention to [the fact] that we are in a situation where we are not in a major recession,” Merkley said, “and yet we're continuing to drive this nation deeper and deeper into debt.”
Merkley noted that if deficits continue at the same level for 20 years, the federal government will “basically [be] able to fund only Medicaid, Medicare, defense, and interest payments, which means no investments in health care, housing and education.”
Vought said the budget request is “not intended to tell you where we would be from the deficit” and claimed that the Trump administration has made great strides in slowing the growth of the debt.
“Actually, the situation is you added $30 trillion last year to the debt over the next 30 years,” Merkley replied. “So rather than reducing deficits and debt, you are increasing them.”