White House Budget Director Russell Vought speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – White House budget director Russ Vought testified before a U.S. House panel on Tuesday that his agency needs lawmakers to boost its annual budget, even though he hasn’t spent much of the $100 million Republicans approved in their “big, beautiful” bill.
That earlier funding, he said, was intended to aid the agency keep an eye on fraud across the federal government and oversee a significant boost in the annual defense budget should Congress agree to appropriate the requested $1.5 trillion.
“That would be one of those portfolios that we don’t think we have anywhere near the number (full-time employees) that we could be accountable for,” Vought said of the proposed defense budget. “And we’re trying to invest in tools that would allow us to do OMB’s work better using technology.”
The Office of Management and Budget, the agency’s official title, would then operate the boost in its annual funding to upgrade a computer system, provide security and pay rent at two locations while moving office space.
OMB asked Congress to approve $146.1 million in its annual spending bill, which is scheduled to take effect before the start of the next fiscal year on October 1. That would represent an boost of 13.3% compared to current funding levels if both chambers approve the request.
The $100 million Republicans gave OMB in their “big, beautiful” bill last year is in addition to the agency’s annual budget.
Meanwhile, Vought testified a hearing Before the House Financial Services and General Administration Subcommittee, the agency hopes to boost the number of full-time employees from about 500 to 675.
Whether other agencies will be able to boost their funding levels and staffing will be up to their directors, Vought said.
Proposed cuts across departments
The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget request asked Congress to cut domestic spending by 10% and boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, an boost of $445 billion.
The proposal calls for spending cuts in several departments, including Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor and State.
Lawmakers from both political parties pushed Vought for staff cuts and funding cuts across the federal government, some of which were implemented by the U.S. Doge Service.
New York Republican Rep. Nick LaLota questioned why the OMB allowed the number of employees in the World Trade Center health program to drop from 93 to 84 when it was approved for 120 people.
“Delays in processing applications, treatment approvals and enrollment complaints have been reported,” LaLota said. “For a program that serves first responders and survivors of 9/11, should OMB’s early warning signals have been that staffing levels had fallen to dangerously low levels that would impact their ability to accomplish this important mission?”
Vought testified that OMB was unaware of problems with the program.
“OMB doesn’t have this all-encompassing view of what’s happening across the federal government,” he said. “We are a nerve center, I agree, but we don’t have the ability to know everything that happens in the agencies.”
Screwworm and development aid
Georgia Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop asked Vought a series of questions about whether USDA staffing cuts had an impact on the New World screwworm, which they did resurfaced in the United States after six decades without a case.
“We don’t think there are enough resources on this issue,” Vought said. “We believe the USDA has what it needs to both create a long-term capability here and find enough shots on goal that farmers can manage this in real time.”
Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan repeatedly pressed Vought during a tense argument over whether cuts to foreign aid programs, including at the U.S. Agency for International Development, led to deaths.
Vought said: “There is nothing in these studies that would have caused us to think differently about the Trump administration’s approach to foreign aid spending.”
Pocan asked Vought whether he thought it was morally or ethically wrong to “facilitate the deaths of children.”
Vought responded that he did not believe the Trump administration’s actions had resulted in this and that the United States was providing “sufficient foreign aid.”
