ICYMI: On Senate Floor, Warren Underscores Danger of Budget Director Nominee Russ Vought
Russ Vought is the architect of Project 2025 and responsible for last week’s government shutdown
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to the Senate floor as part of a 30-hour hold by Senate Democrats to delay the confirmation of Mr. Russell Vought, nominee to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Senator Warren called out the serious consequences of Mr. Vought’s leadership, including the impacts of a government shutdown last week, on Massachusetts communities and families. Senator Warren also underscored the dangers of hundreds of executive orders President Trump has signed in his first few weeks.
Transcript: Senator Warren’s Floor Speech on the Nomination of Russ Vought
U.S. Senate Floor
February 5, 2025
As Delivered
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to thank Senator Murray for her extraordinary leadership. She's been a stalwart in the Senate for many, many years, and now is the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, and knows firsthand the importance of the process by which we make a law in the United States, and that includes that we pass those laws in Congress, we fund them in Congress, it's signed by the president of the United States, and people across this nation can know, through that process those are what the laws are. And if you don't like those laws, then elect different people who will come up with different versions of the law. But everyone, Democrat or Republican, sticks to the same version, and that is: a law is a law.
The President of the United States, or his Co-President Elon Musk, do not have the right, simply, to go back on the laws and say, “Oh, we pick that one, that one, and that one to enforce, and that one, no, that one, no, and maybe that one half-time.” That is not how the process works. And Senator Murray has been a leading voice in fighting back against this and I just want to say how much I appreciate all that she has done.
So, I want to talk for just a minute about Project 2025. During the 2024 election, the American people became familiar with this Republican document called Project 2025. The document laid out Republican plans to reshape our country, if they gained control. Now, Americans, a little at a time, got a chance to see the plan. People started to read it, and they were shocked. In no time, people from across the political spectrum, not just Democrats – Democrats, Republicans, independents, made clear how much they hated Project 2025, and that they wanted no part of it. So, what was in Project 2025 that made it so widely hated across the political spectrum? A few things – firing civil servants, weaponizing the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, unleashing force onto protestors, and targeting political opponents, restricting abortion nationwide, ripping retirement and health care benefits from seniors, dismantling public education, and, biggest and best, funding tax cuts for the rich by raising taxes on America's middle class. And, I want to be clear – it's a big document. Those are just the top lines.
So Donald Trump's response was to swear over and over and over again that he had nothing to do with those plans. Didn't know about them, didn't endorse them, didn't want anything to do with them. Here are some of the things that Donald Trump said about Project 2025 back in 2024: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I disagree with some of the things they're saying, and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” And, my personal favorite, “They've been told, officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 2025.”
So, think about that. During the 2024 election, Donald Trump claimed he didn't know anything about Project 2025, but he lied. Shortly after the election, he nominated one of the chief architects of Project 2025 in a key role with the government. Now, Donald Trump has named the lead architect of Project 2025, Russ Vought, to oversee the federal government's entire budget office. That's right, listen to this one, he is putting the head writer of the plans that you had only read about in nightmares in a key government position. Russ Vought wrote Project 2025, and now Donald Trump is rewarding him by inviting him into the government in order to carry out the Republican blueprint to make our government force people to live in the image that Russ Vought and other extremist Republicans approve of. And he plans to rework our economy to benefit the wealthiest among us and make everybody else pay for it.
Here are just a few of the things that Russ Vought has called for –- Russ Vought has called on Congress to outlaw medication abortion nationwide, restricting women's reproductive rights even in states that protect abortion. Russ Vought has encouraged discrimination against transgender people in the workplace and in health care. In his first stint as OMB Director, Russ Vought decried the use of federal funding for diversity and equity training in a letter to federal agencies. The Project 2025 playbook calls for eliminating almost every civil rights office in the federal government. And Russ Vought has said he intends to put federal workers “in trauma” and destroy the merit-based system for civil servants so that he can fill the government with right wing extremists.
I'm going to pause here for a minute to see if Senator Gillibrand wants to speak.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Thank you, Senator Warren, for your unbelievable tenacity and clear-eyed and thoughtful remarks. I yield the balance of my post-cloture debate time on the vote nomination to Senator Schumer.
Presiding Officer: Duly noted.
Senator Gillibrand: Thank you again, Senator Warren.
Senator Warren: Let’s keep in mind, Russ Vought has called for outlawing abortion, medication abortion nationwide. Doesn't matter whether or not you live in the state that says, “No, we're going to protect abortion,” Russ Vought wants to find a way to make sure it's shut down everywhere. He wants to encourage discrimination against transgender people. He thinks getting rid of civil rights is the way to go for the American government. And he says he wants to put federal workers “in trauma” and destroy the merit-based system for civil servants so he can fill up our government with right wing extremists.
Now, we are already seeing firsthand the devastating effects of Russ Vought's plan for America. Russ Vought was the puppet master behind the funding shutdown that threw this country into chaos last week. I saw this in Massachusetts. Parents didn't know if their toddlers' day care would be open. Seniors didn't know if the hot meal that they were expecting from Meals on Wheels would grind to a halt. No one knew if the nursing homes funded by Medicaid would be able to pay their workers. And that was just the tip of the iceberg for Russ Vought.
If he is confirmed, you can absolutely bet on Russ Vought pulling out the rug from working people over and over and over again. And, quite frankly, we don't know where he will stop. This is where they started – three weeks in and this is where they've started.
So will Russ Vought, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump stop when they've ripped abortion rights away from every single woman in America? Will he stop when he's abolished the Department of Education and fired 180,000 teachers from their jobs? Will he stop when he has privatized Medicare and when seniors can't afford to go see the doctor? Will he stop when he's done stealing from middle-class families in order to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest households? Yep, by the way, that is in his blueprint, too. Tax hikes for the middle class, tax breaks for the rich. Or will he stop when he crashes the economy? And take it from me, with these kinds of plans, crashing the economy is no longer a stretch.
Russ Vought's Project 2025 proposals will lead to higher inflation, higher interest rates, and weaker economic growth. Project 2025 would seriously threaten another recession. Look, already families all across this country are feeling the pressure from high grocery prices while Donald Trump and his administration just turn their backs on working families. American families cannot afford for Russ Vought to be in charge. We don't know how far Russ Vought's extremism will go, but we can't afford to wait and find out.
Americans voted for each and every one of us right here in the United States Senate to fight for them, and they do not expect us to roll over and play dead. It is our sworn duty to stop dangerous people like Russ Vought before he destroys our freedom, our economy, and the stability of every working family in this nation. And so I urge every senator to vote no on his nomination.
Video of Senator Warren’s full remarks can be found here.
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