Russ Vought is making DOGE dreams come true
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OMB director Russell Vought testifying before the Senate in June. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Elon Musk may be gone from the White House, but there's someone far more effective now firming up DOGE's legacy: Russell Vought.
Why it matters: The director of the Office of Management and Budget is helping make DOGE's dreams come through — by clawing back $9 billion in federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and foreign aid.
State of play: At a breakfast with reporters on Thursday, Vought said OMB's job is to make DOGE's cuts permanent — the goal of the $9 billion package that was then before Congress.
- "The way this package was structured was we basically took a laundry list of the waste and abuse that we had found in conjunction with DOGE, working together...."
- He also emphasized that he is not the head of DOGE — any suggestion to the contrary is "fake news," he said.
- Vought said that remaining DOGE folks are "largely at the agencies and working for agency heads."
- He also said if the bill passed, they're likely send another package "soon."
Zoom out: Vought said that his view has been that OMB should "team up" with Musk's group, "and figure out how to make these things permanent, and to use what OMB institutional expertise is for. To make it so it's not just a flash in the pan."
- "And that's what we're doing right now."
Between the lines: Where Musk was scattershot, Vought has been carrying out his goals methodically, bolstered by deep knowledge of policy.
- "Russ Vought is now running the show and being very specific and precisely calculated," says Bobby Kogan, who worked at OMB during the Biden administration, and opposes what Vought's doing with the agency.
- "He's incredibly effective," he says.
- Vought also runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which he has been systematically dismantling for months — dropping the agency's court actions against financial firms, and actively backing away from its established regulations.
Where it stands: The House voted 216-213 early Friday to approve the clawback bill. It now awaits Trump to sign it into law.
What to watch: President Trump's moves to oust Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell — Vought is part of the effort that appears to be developing a legal predicate to fire the central banker for cause, as Axios reported.
