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Vought's Policy Battles: Reshaping Federal Institutions from Museums to Homelessness
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been at the center of several major policy fights in recent days, touching everything from museums and science to homelessness and the federal workforce.
South Florida Reporter describes how the White House, through a letter signed by Russell Vought and Domestic Policy Council director Vince Haley, warned the Smithsonian Institution that federal funding could be delayed or withheld unless it complies with an extensive patriotic content review of exhibits. According to that report, the letter criticized earlier Smithsonian submissions as falling far short of requirements and set a firm January deadline for detailed internal budgets, project schedules, and exhibit text, especially for the America two hundred fifty celebrations. The article explains that Vought is leveraging the budget office apportionment power to press for what the administration calls content corrections in museum narratives.
Housing and homelessness policy has also brought Vought into the spotlight. Laist reports that a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking a sweeping overhaul of homelessness grants at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an overhaul that would have shifted billions of dollars away from permanent housing toward more conditional, treatment focused programs. The story notes that the judge sharply criticized the chaos surrounding the rollout and cited public interest in stability for vulnerable populations, a direct rebuke to the changes promoted by the administration and overseen in budget terms by Voughts office.
In a separate Laist brief on federal layoffs, Vought announced on the social platform X that the reduction in force process had begun across multiple agencies, signaling what he called substantial layoffs of federal workers during the ongoing shutdown fight. The report notes that an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson confirmed the cuts but offered few details, while labor unions and some Republicans in Congress, including Senator Susan Collins, condemned Voughts push to permanently eliminate furloughed positions as an abuse of shutdown politics.
These actions come on top of broader efforts linked to Vought and other Project Twenty Twenty Five architects to shrink and redirect federal institutions, from foreign aid and climate research to domestic social programs, as described by outlets such as The Fulcrum and Colorado Public Radio in their coverage of State Department cuts and protests over plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
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Published on 1 week, 4 days ago