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Vought Defends the FY2026 Budget and the One Big Beautiful Bill at House Appropriations, Jun. 4, 2025

June 4, 2025 · Forbes Breaking News · 1:56:03

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What happened

OMB Director Russell Vought testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee on June 4, 2025, on the President’s fiscal 2026 budget request, in Forbes Breaking News’ full recording. In his opening case, Vought said the FY26 budget ‘in tandem with the one big beautiful bill and other tools this administration has at its disposal will finally end the era of unchecked federal spending, stop the weaponization of government, and turbocharge economic growth,’ and put the headline number on the request: it ‘reduces non-defense spending by $163 billion, 22% below current year levels,’ to what he called the lowest non-defense level in years.

The subcommittee’s ranking member answered that Vought’s agenda was ‘a danger to our country, our constitution, our people,’ and an attempt to marginalize Congress and Article I — criticism carried here as it was delivered at the hearing. The hearing came a day after the White House sent Congress its roughly $9.4 billion rescissions request covering foreign aid and public broadcasting, as The Hill’s coverage of the same hearing noted.

Why it matters

This is Vought’s first full appropriations defense of the FY2026 request: the $163 billion non-defense cut figure, the reconciliation-plus-budget strategy, and the Article I objection it drew — the template for every appropriations fight of his tenure.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the FY2026 budget’s $163 billion / 22% non-defense reduction as Vought stated it on June 4, 2025 — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: Forbes Breaking News, ‘FULL: OMB Director Vought Defends Big, Beautiful Bill In House Appropriations Committee Hearing,’ June 4, 2025 (video xCIEhwvRArw); transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, never republished verbatim). Alternate carry of the same hearing recorded in the index: The Hill (QnpF115tiL0).