Senator Rosen: “Nevadans are hurting, and they are looking to Congress for help. If Vought is given the power to shape our federal budget, we risk seeing critical programs slashed, leaving our seniors, working people, families facing higher costs, fewer services, and with less financial security.”
Watch Senator Rosen’s Full Remarks HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) took the Senate floor to oppose the confirmation of one of the key authors of Project 2025, Russell Vought, to lead the Office of Management and Budget. In her speech, Senator Rosen highlighted Mr. Vought’s extreme far-right views and plans that would harm hard-working families, including putting programs like Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, and giving tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations on the backs of seniors and working families.
Below are excerpts of Senator Rosen’s floor remarks:
Mr. President,
Nevadans sent me to the Senate to stand up and fight for hardworking families throughout our state.
And that’s exactly why I’m here today – to sound the alarm about Russell Vought’s nomination to lead the Trump Administration’s Office of Management and Budget. They oversee virtually every agency and the entire federal budget.
Mr. Vought would be a disaster if he’s put in this role again.
Russell Vought vote is an extremist who will betray working families, betray your family – and there’s simply no other way to put it.
After all, he was the main architect behind [the] Project 2025 agenda.
You might have heard of it, but for those who don’t know, Project 2025 is Russell Vought’s far-right playbook for seizing full control of the federal government. I’m going to repeat that: this is he wrote the playbook to seize full control over the federal government. Our government. Your government.
It’s filled with extreme ideas that would hurt families like yours. Ideas like putting essential government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security on the chopping block. And it’s going to give handouts to billionaires and big corporations on the backs of America’s middle class. On your backs.
Seeing how much power this Administration has already given to unelected, unelected billionaire CEOs, it’s not hard to imagine what’s coming next.
[…]
I urge my colleagues who are considering a vote for this nomination to think about what working people in this country are going through at this moment.
I urge my colleagues to think about the Moms and the Dads who come home from a hard day at work. They have dinner with their family, they put their kids to bed, and then, instead of relaxing in front of the TV, they sit at the kitchen table, and they worry. And they’re worried sick about how they’re going to pay the bills, how they’re going to keep a roof over their head, how they’re going to keep putting food on the table.
They’re going back and forth, trying to figure out what essentials they can live without just to make ends meet.
At the same time, the billionaires that Russell Vought is looking out for, well, they don’t understand the struggle, I can bet you that. I’m going to say here: let’s ask those billionaires last time they went grocery shopping and worried about the price of eggs or milk. I bet they don’t have an answer for that. That’s who Mr. Vought fights for. And these struggles that real families are going through, they’re tough choices that far, far too many working families face every single day.
And these are the people who will be hurt most by Russell Vought’s extreme, extreme agenda.
And we know that, right now, these same families are feeling the squeeze of rising costs – it’s everywhere, the grocery store to the gas pump.
And with the added price spikes from President Trump’s reckless tariff threats, it’s going to get even harder to afford food, pay off an energy bill, or make rent – let alone, let alone buy a home.
And so, it’s no wonder people are so frustrated with the way things are – it shouldn’t have to be this way.
We should be looking for opportunities to help make their lives better – to make things a little easier.
At a time when Americans are already paying an arm and a leg for essentials – when they desperately need the support of critical government programs that make such a meaningful difference, why on earth would we confirm someone who will just make their lives harder? Why on earth would we do this?
So, make no mistake: if Russell Vought is allowed to head up the OMB, he, Vought will work to make sure the ultra-wealthy get more, while struggling families get even less than they have now. This is who Russel Vought is, and this is what he’ll do – what he’ll do to you.
Mr. President, Nevadans are hurting, and they are looking to Congress for help.
If Vought is given the power to shape our federal budget, we risk seeing critical programs slashed, leaving our seniors, working people, families facing higher costs, fewer services, and with less financial security.
And this isn’t just an ideological difference; it’s a real threat to millions of people’s well-being. To the very core of what’s most important to them: their families.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher. And so, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to reject this reckless nomination for the sake of all of our families.
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