The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate Budget Committee will move ahead on confirming President Donald Trump's pick for budget chief Russell Vought despite calls from top Democrats for a delay after an order halting all federal grants and loans.

President Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget faced a tough grilling from Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday.

As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought plans to implement the most critical parts of the new Trump agenda.

Russell Vought has signaled he hopes to slash spending — and push the limits of presidential power to achieve Trump’s agenda.

If Russell Vought is confirmed as Office of Management and Budget director, he will continue to enact and accelerate the radical, sweeping agenda he began to implement in that same position during the final two years of the first Trump administration.

Vought, a co-author of Project 2025 who served as budget director in Donald Trump's first term, has signaled he will take a more aggressive approach to helping the president-elect carry out his agenda of shrinking the federal government.

Senate Democrats are demanding Republicans postpone a vote scheduled for Thursday on Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, after the budget office on Monday issued a broadly worded memo freezing large swaths of federal assistance.

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget, poses for a photo with Cabinet picks, other nominees and appointments, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, promised to help American taxpayers while undergoing a contentious confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Russell Vought, Project 2025 mastermind and Trump’s nominee for the Office of Management and Budget, had quite a testy confirmation hearing.

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Russell Vought, President Trump’s pick to head the White House budget office, told senators in his confirmation questionnaire that he believes the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.” Asked by Sen.