Senate Democrats grilled Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, over threats Trump has made to withhold federal funding from California to handle the deadly wildfires in the state.
Trump has accused Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of mismanaging the state’s water supply and has suggested that Newsom should resign and amend California’s water controls or risk losing out on federal disaster relief.
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Both Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Richard Blumenthal (D-OR) pressed Vought during his Wednesday confirmation hearing about Trump’s threats to states.
Hassan first asked Vought if he would stand up to Trump “if the president says to you, ‘I don’t like California, and I’m not going to give them the disaster aid they need.”
“I don’t engage in hypotheticals, but the president would never ask me to do something along those lines,” he stated simply.
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Vought gave a slightly more detailed answer when Blumenthal asked if he would commit to releasing funds appropriated by the previous Congress to deal with deadly hurricanes last fall.
“We will continue to release the money that’s appropriately been funded for these areas, as we always have with regard to the FEMA dollars,” Vought responded.
