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Vought’s testy Hill hearing
Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week – a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.
Testy testimony. Whenever OMB Director Russ Vought comes to Capitol Hill, he often draws a big crowd.
This week was no exception. Vought testified at both the House and Senate Budget Committee to packed rooms. He and lawmakers delivered on what the crowds were expecting: lots of partisan bickering. Yet even so, there was the occasional surprising glimmer of bipartisanship.
When I showed up at the House Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, there was already a line stretching down the spacious hallway in the Cannon House Office Building. Every seat inside was filled. Even though it was 90 degrees outside, it felt even hotter inside. Temperatures were already rising.
Off the bat, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) predicted the hearing would be more “amped up” than usual. That was mostly true. Protestors interrupted Vought just a few minutes into his opening statement, yelling, “PEPFAR saves lives.” The Trump administration targeted PEPFAR, the bipartisan HIV/AIDS prevention program the Bush administration created, for cuts in a rescissions package last year. Capitol Police quickly escorted the protestors away.
The House hearing lasted just over three hours. House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) quickly clashed with Vought over the impacts of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Boyle, at one point, said one of Vought’s responses was “laughable.”
But there were small points of agreement. When Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) pressed Vought on the administration’s disbursement of disaster relief funds, both Chu and Vought agreed that Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program funds need to be disbursed. Vought said he agreed that BRIC funds shouldn’t have been canceled. Arrington quipped that they should just end the hearing on that note, with agreement between a Democrat and Vought.
The hearing continued, though. Surprisingly, only Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) asked when the Trump administration will send a supplemental funding request for the Iran war. Vought said he didn’t have a ballpark number or a timeline on when that would happen.
There are plenty more budget hearings on deck for next week. Vought is done with his tour of Capitol Hill, but we’ll likely get similar fireworks from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he makes his appearances soon.
What I’m watching: I’m locked in on “Summer House,” given all of the off-screen drama that’s been happening. If you need someone to talk to about Scamanda, I’d love to chat.
– Samantha Handler
You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 8 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.
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