Director of the Office of Management and Budget - 101
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Controversy Erupts as Vought Slashes Energy and Infrastructure Funding, Sparking Lawsuit
Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, faces sharp criticism over recent funding cuts to energy and infrastructure programs. On February 18, 2026, a coalition of 13 attorneys general, including Connecticut's William Tong, Illinois's Kwame Raoul, California's Rob Bonta, and Rhode Island's Peter Neronha, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the Connecticut Attorney General's office, the suit targets decisions by the Department of Energy, Secretary Chris Wright, the Office of Management and Budget, and Vought to terminate billions of dollars in awards from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. California Attorney General Bonta highlighted over 1.2 billion dollars cut in the state alone, warning of 200,000 union job losses, higher energy prices, and increased pollution, per the California Attorney General's press release. These actions trace back to Vought's September 2025 X post, where he announced the Department of Energy would end nearly 8 billion dollars in what he called Green New Scam funding for the Left's climate agenda, targeting projects in 16 Democratic-leaning states, as detailed in multiple state attorney general statements. The cuts followed President Trump's January 2025 executive orders declaring a national energy emergency and terminating the Green New Deal, with the Department of Energy using a May 2025 policy memo for reviews that led to project cancellations. On January 23, 2026, Vought's office issued Memorandum M-26-05, rescinding Biden-era requirements for software self-attestations in federal procurement. Inside Government Contracts reports this shift promotes agency-specific risk-based approaches to software and hardware security, ditching a one-size-fits-all model while keeping software inventories mandatory. ProPublica won a George Polk Award on February 19, 2026, for Andy Kroll's series The Shadow President, which draws on 50 hours of Vought's private recordings and documents. POLITICO's Playbook notes it reveals Vought's role in mass layoffs, aid cuts, and expanding presidential power, often behind actions credited to the Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump administration also urged the D.C. Circuit on February 18, 2026, to lift an injunction on mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, per Law360. Thank you for tuning in, listeners. Please subscribe for more updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. For more http://www.quietplease.ai Get the best deals https://amzn.to/3ODvOta This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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