1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I urge you to reject the nomination of Russell T. Vought for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As Acting Director and later Director of OMB during the Trump administration, Vought sought to strip protections from 88% of the agency's workforce, setting a dangerous precedent for undermining the nonpartisan federal civil service. He was a key proponent of the "Schedule F" plan to allow any president to purge federal agencies of career experts by reclassifying their positions and making them fireable at will without due process. Furthermore, Vought has expressed support for the president invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces against civilian protesters, citing the 2020 protests following George Floyd's murder as a potential justification. He has also advocated using the military to address immigration at the southern border, portraying it as an "invasion." Such concerning stances undermine civil liberties and democratic norms. Given Vought's troubling record of seeking to dismantle workforce protections, enable the politicization of the civil service, and deploy military force domestically, he is unfit to lead OMB, an agency that must uphold principles of good governance. I strongly urge you to reject his nomination in order to preserve an independent, professional federal workforce and protect constitutional rights. His confirmation would represent a threat to long-standing democratic safeguards.