Biography
Russ Vought is an American federal official who has led the Office of Management and Budget in two administrations. The Senate confirmed him as OMB Director on 20 July 2020 and again on 6 February 2025. He also wrote the chapter on the Executive Office of the President in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, the policy volume published by The Heritage Foundation as part of Project 2025.
Congressional Staff Work and Education
The Library of Congress name authority record for “Vought, Russell T.” draws its biographical detail from the Senate Budget Committee’s 2017 hearing print on his nomination to be deputy director of OMB. That record notes that he graduated from Wheaton College in 1998 and that he served then-Conference Chairman Mike Pence as Policy Director at the House Republican Conference.
The biography Vought supplied for Mandate for Leadership adds that he spent nearly two decades working on Capitol Hill, including as Policy Director for the House Republican Conference, Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee, and Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, and that he holds a JD from George Washington University Law School.
Office of Management and Budget
The Senate confirmed Vought as Deputy Director of OMB on 28 February 2018 by 50 yeas to 49 nays, with the Vice President voting yea to break the tie — Vote No. EX. 40 in that day’s record.
He subsequently exercised the directorship in an acting capacity. Federal Register document 2020-13889, published on 30 June 2020, carries his signature as “Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget.” The 2020 Plum Book, the House Oversight Committee’s personnel print with data as of 30 June 2020, lists “Russell Thurlow Vought” as the incumbent Deputy Director of OMB — a Senate-confirmed Executive Schedule Level II post — with the Director position immediately above shown as vacant.
The Senate confirmed him as Director on 20 July 2020 by 51 yeas to 45 nays (Vote No. EX. 131).
Trump nominated him to the same post again on 20 January 2025; Congress.gov records the nomination as PN11-22 of the 119th Congress. The Senate confirmed him on 6 February 2025 by 53 yeas to 47 nays (Vote No. EX. 37), and on the same day agreed by 52 to 47 to table the motion to reconsider. The Daily Digest for that day carried the confirmation as its Senate highlight.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Vought has also signed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rulemakings as the Bureau’s acting director. Federal Register documents from May 2025 onward — beginning with the rescission of the Bureau’s rules of practice for adjudication proceedings, published 13 May 2025 — carry the signature “Russell Vought, Acting Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” Documents published as late as July 2026 carry the same signature.
Other Nominations
Beyond the OMB directorship, Congress.gov records four further nominations of Vought in the 119th Congress: to the boards of directors of the African Development Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. The first pair, PN29-3 and PN29-4, were received on 10 March 2025 and returned to the President on 3 January 2026 under Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6. They were resubmitted as PN730-64 and PN730-65 on 13 January 2026 and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Project 2025 and Mandate for Leadership
Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise was published by The Heritage Foundation in 2023 as the policy volume of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. Its title page credits a foreword by Kevin D. Roberts and editing by Paul Dans and Steven Groves. Vought is the author of Chapter 2, “Executive Office of the President of the United States,” which begins at page 43.
The chapter argues from Article II of the Constitution that “[t]he executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” and that “that enormous power is not vested in departments or agencies, in staff or administrative bodies, in nongovernmental organizations or other equities and interests close to the government.” Vought writes that “the modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people,” and identifies as obstacles Congress’s delegation of lawmaking power to agencies, the doctrine of expert independence, and difficulty in holding career civil servants accountable.
Vought’s own biography in the volume describes him as Founder and President of the Center for Renewing America. Separately, IRS Form 990 filings for Citizens for Renewing America Inc. — a section 501(c)(4) organization at 300 Independence Avenue SE in Washington, DC, EIN 86-1769922 — list Russell Vought as President and Kevin Kookogey as Chairman and Secretary, each taking no compensation from that entity. Its most recent extracted fiscal year, ending December 2024, shows total revenue of 786,480.
Relevance to Political Discourse
Vought’s chapter is one of the most cited parts of the Project 2025 volume, and his return to OMB placed the author of a transition blueprint in the office that controls the executive branch’s budget and management guidance. During the October-November 2025 government shutdown, Trump publicly tied his agency-cutting plans to a meeting with Vought; that episode is covered in the timeline entry for 2 October 2025. The statute that reopened the government, Public Law 119-37, voided the reductions in force taken during the lapse.
What Is Not Established Here
This page previously described Vought as a “former” OMB director; the Senate record shows he was confirmed a second time on 6 February 2025 and the Federal Register shows him signing as an agency head thereafter, so “former” was wrong and has been corrected. The previous statement that he “was nominated again for the OMB director role following Trump’s 2024 election victory” understated the record, which shows a completed confirmation.
No year of birth is stated. The Library of Congress name authority record for him carries no date of birth, and no primary record examined for this audit supplies one; the figure circulating in tertiary reference works was not adopted.
No employment date ranges are asserted beyond those a record supports. The Plum Book fixes his deputy directorship as of 30 June 2020 and the Congressional Record fixes the three confirmation dates, but the start and end dates of his congressional staff positions, his tenure at the Republican Study Committee, and the founding date of the Center for Renewing America are not evidenced here and are therefore not stated.
The date on which he became acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not stated. The earliest Federal Register document found bearing that signature is dated 13 May 2025, which establishes that he held the role by then but not when he assumed it.
Nothing is asserted about the relationship between the Center for Renewing America named in his Mandate for Leadership biography and the separately registered Citizens for Renewing America Inc. The two are described separately because only the latter could be tied to a filed federal record.
Characterizations of Project 2025’s aims, of Vought’s political orientation, and of the effects of his budget decisions are not made in this project’s voice. Where the Mandate for Leadership text argues a position, it is quoted and attributed to the chapter.
Sources
- 01.
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Congressional Record, Volume 171, Number 24 — Daily Digest, Thursday, February 6, 2025. (2025). The whole-issue PDF was downloaded from govinfo with curl and the text extracted locally; the Daily Digest is the Senate's own summary of the day's chamber action. Source for the Digest highlight 'Senate confirmed the nomination of Russell Vought, of Virginia, to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget'; for the recorded tally 'By 53 yeas to 47 nays (Vote No. EX. 37)'; and for the same day's motion to table the motion to reconsider, agreed to by 52 yeas to 47 nays (Vote No. EX. 38).
- 02.
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Congressional Record, Volume 166, Number 129 — Daily Digest, Monday, July 20, 2020. (2020). Whole-issue PDF retrieved from govinfo with curl. Source for the first confirmation: under 'Nominations Confirmed', 'By 51 yeas to 45 nays (Vote No. EX. 131), Russell Vought, of Virginia, to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget.' The same issue carries the floor debate on the nomination and the Executive Calendar entry.
- 03.
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Congressional Record, Volume 164, Number 36 — Daily Digest, Wednesday, February 28, 2018. (2018). Whole-issue PDF retrieved from govinfo with curl. Source for the Deputy Director confirmation: 'By 50 yeas to 49 nays, Vice President voting yea (Vote No. EX. 40), Russell Vought, of Virginia, to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.'
- 04.
Committee on Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, 116th Congress. United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions (the "Plum Book"), 2020. (2020). Committee print of December 2020 containing data as of June 30, 2020, retrieved from govinfo with plain curl. In the Executive Office of the President listing for the Office of Management and Budget, Office of the Director, 'Russell Thurlow Vought' is the named incumbent of 'Deputy Director Office of Management and Budget', appointment type PAS (Presidential appointment with Senate confirmation) at Executive Schedule Level II. The Director post immediately above him is shown as Vacant. This is the federal government's own record that as of 30 June 2020 he held the deputy directorship, not the directorship, and it is the source for his full middle name.
- 05.
U.S. Congress (Congress.gov API). Nomination PN11-22, 119th Congress — Russell Vought, of Virginia, to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget. (2025). Congress.gov's nomination record, retrieved from the public API. Source for the citation PN11-22, for the nomination being received in the Senate on 2025-01-20, for the organization 'Executive Office of the President', and for the latest recorded action of 2025-02-06. The same API listing for the 119th Congress is the source for two further Vought nominations described on this page: PN29-3 and PN29-4 (received 2025-03-10, to the boards of the African Development Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation), both returned to the President on 2026-01-03 under Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6; and their resubmission as PN730-64 and PN730-65, received 2026-01-13 and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
- 06.
Roberts, K. D., Dans, P., & Groves, S. (2023). Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. The Heritage Foundation. The Project 2025 policy volume, ISBN 978-0-89195-174-2, copyright 2023 by The Heritage Foundation. The full PDF was downloaded from the Internet Archive with curl and the text extracted locally, because heritage.org and project2025.org refuse automated clients. Its title page reads 'Foreword by Kevin D. Roberts, PhD / Edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves'. Source for Vought's authorship of Chapter 2, 'Executive Office of the President of the United States', beginning at page 43; for the chapter's opening argument about Article II and the executive branch; and for the volume's own AUTHORS biography of Vought, which is the first-party source for his description as Founder and President of the Center for Renewing America, for his service as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, for his prior roles as Policy Director for the House Republican Conference, Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee and Legislative Assistant to Senator Phil Gramm, and for his BA from Wheaton College and JD from George Washington University Law School.
- 07.
Library of Congress. Vought, Russell T. — Library of Congress name authority record no2018001116. The LC/NACO authority record, retrieved as JSON because the HTML view returns 403. Its cited source of information is the Senate Committee on the Budget hearing print 'Nomination of Russell T. Vought, of Virginia, to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, 2017', with the citation note recording that he graduated from Wheaton College in 1998 (p. 5) and served then-Conference Chairman Mike Pence as Policy Director at the House Republican Conference (p. 6). The record carries an affiliation with Wheaton College ending 1998 and the occupation 'Budget analysts'. It records no date of birth, which is why this page states none.
- 08.
Office of Management and Budget. Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act Program (WIFIA) Criteria Pursuant to the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020. (2020). Federal Register document 2020-13889, published 30 June 2020, read from govinfo's HTML rendering. Its signature block reads 'Russell Vought, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget' alongside EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. This is the primary record that he was signing as acting OMB director before his July 2020 confirmation.
- 09.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Rules of Practice for Adjudication Proceedings; Rescission. (2025). Federal Register document 2025-08344, published 13 May 2025, read from govinfo. Signed 'Russell Vought, Acting Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau'. This is the earliest CFPB rulemaking carrying that signature that the Federal Register full-text index returns, and is the primary record of his acting leadership of the Bureau.
- 10.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Request for Information Regarding Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit. (2026). Federal Register document 2026-13834, published 9 July 2026, read from govinfo. Also signed 'Russell Vought, Acting Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau'. Cited to show the acting role was still being exercised in mid-2026 rather than only in 2025.
- 11.
Internal Revenue Service, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Citizens For Renewing America Inc — IRS Form 990 filings, EIN 86-1769922. Organization page fetched with curl and a browser user agent, because the underlying 990 PDFs return 403. The entity is a section 501(c)(4) organization at 300 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC. Across the four Form 990 filings displayed, the Key Employees and Officers table names 'Russell Vought (President)' and 'Kevin Kookogey (Chairman & Secretary)', each with $0 direct compensation from this entity and other compensation reported from related organizations. The most recent extracted fiscal year ends December 2024, with total revenue $630,478 and total expenses $786,480. Note that this 501(c)(4) is a differently named entity from the Center for Renewing America named in Vought's Mandate for Leadership biography; this page keeps the two separate rather than treating them as one organization.
- 12.
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Trump embraces Project 2025 during government shutdown (Public Law 119-37 and OMB memoranda). (2025). Cited only for the statutory outcome of the October-November 2025 shutdown reductions in force referenced on this page, and to keep this page consistent with the timeline entry 'trump-embraces-project-2025-shutdown', which carries the fuller sourcing. Section 120 of the act provides that any reduction in force taken between 1 October 2025 and enactment shall have no force or effect.