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  • 6 days ago
OMB Director Russell Vought spoke with reporters on Friday outside of the White House.
Transcript
00:00Look, we have substantial questions with the testimony they gave to the Hill in
00:20response to questions about the building. He has articulated that there
00:24have been material changes to the National Capital Planning proposal
00:28that was approved. And so we want to get to the bottom of his statements as
00:34compared to the various parts of the plan. That was the nature of my letter
00:38yesterday. Those are the types of questions that the commission will be
00:43asking in the coming weeks.
00:51This is about the renovations that are occurring, the extent to which they
00:57are largesse. The cost that we're talking about is now 2.5 billion. If you look at the
01:03actual Palace of Versailles, if you were to update those figures for where we in
01:09modern numbers, it would be three billion dollars. The capital was about two and a
01:14half billion dollars from all of its different buildings from the founding of
01:18the country to 1982. Uh, you look at the biggest buildings across the world and
01:25this is approaching that level. I mean, it probably had to qualify as one of the
01:29eight wonders of the ancient world if you were able to go back that far. And
01:35ultimately, when did that ever go through a review by a democratic body? And so this is
01:42the National Capital Planning Commission will now have an opportunity to ask some
01:47tough questions of the Fed. We will be asking tough questions with regard to the
01:51Fed. But this is about the president being offended at cost overruns. He's a
01:57developer and the size of this project is something that, you know, should never
02:03come forward. What's that? So we have us our first rescissions package up on
02:12Congress. We had a great vote in the House. We have a second vote next week. I am
02:17confident that they will pass the bill. I'll be up there on Tuesday to answer any
02:22additional questions. I've already answered many questions on this front. But we
02:27think it's a very important step for Congress to show that they are willing to
02:31pass the doge cuts. People say, why is it a $9 billion package? It's a $9 billion
02:37package because we want to see is Congress serious about that. Senator Kennedy has
02:42had some some incredible floor speeches on this very issue. Is Congress serious
02:48about passing and making the doge cuts permanent? Or are we going to have to
02:52continue to use our executive tools on that? The president put out a great truth
02:57social last night, the extent to which we have been talking in this town as
03:02conservatives, as Republicans, about defunding Corporation for Public
03:05Broadcasting for a very long time. We are now on the verge of being able to do
03:10that. And it's important that we finally take that opportunity and not fall back in
03:15the time of the tired old excuses that have defended that program for so long.
03:20What about the president of the Fed? You didn't quite answer this question. Does the president want to see the Fed still operating potentially?
03:26Because I think the question is immaterial. The president has a policy view with
03:29regard to we need lower rates. He has a policy view with regard to the fact that
03:34Jerome Powell has been late repeatedly. The Fed has been mismanaged. You look at the
03:40fact that they have been taking deficits since 2023 for the first time since 1916.
03:46And then you look and you have this incredible spectacle on the nation's
03:52mall of largesse that we can't afford as a country. People will be offended if they
03:58came and they're going around checking out all the monuments and they see what is
04:02occurring. Then they go behind the Ethels building and they see the Martin
04:07building which is complete and I know they are often in my duties as CFPB
04:10director and you see the extent to which it is is is massive. There's art fine
04:18artwork everywhere and it's it's it is offensive to taxpayers and we're not
04:24getting remittances from the Fed ever since 2023 and that's hurting our our
04:29deficit. That's that's that's creating a situation where we have higher interest
04:34costs as a country and it's just a series of mismanagement. So I know you guys
04:38want to make it more about a metaphysical question about the
04:41independence of the Fed. This is about the extent to which this building this
04:46renovation project is horrifying from a cost perspective and in our
04:51administration both OMB the National Capital Planning Commission which now has
04:56three new commissioners and as of yesterday is going to be asking it is
05:00asking very very tough questions.
05:06Those are those are announcements that he will make at the appropriate time when
05:13he's ready to do it. Is there anyone that you would like to see potentially
05:16those are the president's Trump supporters around the country want to see wasteful
05:20spending. What can they do to help you? Well look we have a great opportunity on the
05:26hill next week with regard to this $9.4 billion package. It's only $9.4 billion.
05:32People ask why is it only $9.4 billion? It's that because we know how close of a
05:38vote it was in the House and we know we have a tight margin in the Senate but that
05:42that margin has to produce a victory. We have other rescissions packages that we
05:49will send if we have a good vote and that will continue. You know when I went
05:53through confirmation people said well Russ you have an Empowerment Control Act.
05:56They knew that we're skeptic skeptics of it. We're not huge fans of it but they
06:02said there's a process for for for using these are Democrats. These are
06:06Republicans that were on the Appropriations Committee. So why wouldn't
06:09you use the rescission package approach? Well we're doing that. We're sending
06:13bills up on that and now we hear an argument that if you use the tools that
06:17are outlined in the ICA that somehow you're renegotiating the
06:21appropriations process or any agreement. That is that's the kind of
06:25thinking the arguments that have caused us to never make any progress in this
06:28town. I think next week may be a huge pivot point in how this this town does
06:33business and will be an exciting milestone to be able to make actual
06:40permanent reductions to some of these savings that we've identified as an
06:44administration since its beginning.
06:48Is this really about wasteful spending or is this about
06:50managing the bed? Because I mean the one big beautiful bill for instance it
06:51included 85 million dollars in the space shuttle from DC to use it. So is this
06:56about pressuring the bed or is it actually about wasteful spending?
07:00Phil the the one big beautiful bill reduced deficits even on a static basis by 400
07:07billion dollars. There was 1.5 trillion dollars in mandatory savings. We haven't had
07:12anything like that since 1997. In 1997 savings levels adjusted for inflation
07:17were only 800 billion dollars. So to say that the one big beautiful bill was not
07:21anything but an enormous improvement on spending on debt and deficits and in the
07:27same vein of all of the things this administration is doing we are taking a
07:32distinct look at what is occurring on the national law with regard to this Fed and
07:38we will continue to do that.
07:42So that's about next steps for the other three for a moment on the outside
07:44and to see the same part of moving forward.
07:46What else do you see? What else do you expect from other agencies?
07:50Are there any agencies in South and High to report from the search of
07:54government to be honest on it?
07:56So every agency head is going to be you know reviewing the the decision. I'm doing it
08:01from my standpoint at the CFPB although I'm not yet covered by it. I have my own
08:06litigation hell that I'm in with regard to the the judicial restraints that they put on our
08:12ability. We can't even cancel contracts at the CFPB let alone use our reduction force
08:18statutes to lower the footprint of the agency that's been weaponized against the American people.
08:22So every agency head is going to be doing that. There's not kind of a macro answer to
08:27what that will occur but certainly it was a great decision. The Supreme Court
08:30affirmed what we knew to be the case with regard to the law.
08:33The President is revamping the Rose Garden for a second time. He's overhauling a 747
08:40spending billions of dollars when it's only going to be used as Air Force One for possibly a year.
08:44Are you concerned about that spending too?
08:46We have a lot of administration priorities and I hope what you've learned from our
08:51first term this term. We need to spend in areas. We need ships. We need aircraft. We need a new
08:59presidential plane that's that's been in the works and been delayed for a long time because
09:05contractors are behind and so that doesn't mean we don't spend where we need to spend but we've
09:11always offered up a fiscal picture that gets to balance that reduces the deficit that deals with
09:18our debt and we're doing it on a host of in a host of ways in this term and so that won't change.
09:23So we will continue to you know we sent up a budget that was 163 billion dollars
09:29in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. We also asked for sizable increase to the border.
09:36We need to spend in certain areas to secure the country to perform the functions of the government
09:42and to make sure that you know we are investing where we need to invest invest but that doesn't mean
09:47that it's in any way inconsistent with an effort to be able to have reduced efforts and lower debt.
09:56But that plane in particular is going to be used for such a short period of time. Is it really worth
10:01the expense? We need additional assets to be able to run this government including fly the president,
10:08keep the president safe and we're way behind in that program and those are the kinds of ideas that flow
10:14from the contractor and other contractors being behind and we're going to look for any opportunity
10:18to do that. Is there anything you want to tell you about FEMA's spending? Is the administration
10:22still looking at potentially phasing help now?
10:25FEMA has 13 billion dollars in its reserves right now to continue to pay for the necessary expenses.
10:35The president has said to Texas it needs everything anything it needs it will get. The president will be
10:40down there surveying the scene and you know we also want FEMA to be reformed. We want the FEMA to work
10:49well and you know the president is going to continue to you know be asking tough questions of all of his
10:55agencies no different than than than any other opportunity to have better government and and fiscal sound
11:04management.

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