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

Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought arrives to testify during a hearing of the House Budget Committee about President Trump's budget for Fiscal Year 2021, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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

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)

If confirmed, Trump's budget pick Russell Vought could affect federal investments that are vital to Erie, environmental advocates say.

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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.

President Donald Trump's pick for the Office of Management and Budget director was condemned Thursday by Democratic Senate leadership, whereas his Interior and Energy secretary nominees got approval recommendations from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee.

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.

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.

The nominee’s combative disdain for Congress’s power of the purse makes him unqualified.