ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
This week President-elect Donald Trump added key players to his incoming White House personnel, a trio of conservatives to help run the Office of Management and Budget. They'll join Trump's nominee for OMB director, Russ Vought, who was announced last month. Combined, the team is one of the clearest signs yet of Trump's plans to aggressively expand his presidential powers. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is here to explain. Hey, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Let's run through these names. Trump said he is nominating Mark Paoletta to be the top lawyer at OMB. Who is he? And what does this tell us?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, he was a top lieutenant to vote at OMB in Trump's first term. Trump also announced that he's going to nominate or he'll nominate Congressman Dan Bishop, who's a member of the Freedom Caucus as the deputy director. And he picked conservative activist Ed Martin as chief of staff. This is perhaps the most fleshed-out team of any agency to be announced so far.
SHAPIRO: And what does that suggest about the team's vision? And why is this office so important?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, this agency is not very well-known outside of Washington, but it really punches above its weight. It's actually seen as kind of the nerve center of the executive branch. It ensures that all the other agencies are on the same page with the president's agenda. Every policy that comes out of the executive branch, whether it's the budget, statements on pending legislation or regulations, coming from most agencies go through the OMB at some point. And Vought has made clear, whether it's in his writings for Project 2025 or interviews with me and others, of his intentions for a much more muscular OMB. I mean, just before he was named to the job, he talked to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson about using the OMB to get reluctant federal staffers on board.
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RUSS VOUGHT: You will be in a situation where you will have, at best, really awesome cabinet secretaries who are sitting on top of massive bureaucracies that largely don't do what they tell them to do. And you have to have statutory tools at your disposal that force that bureaucracy from the White House to get in line.
SHAPIRO: Sounds like OMB would have an activist role in this administration.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, Vought sees the OMB leading Trump's efforts on things like cutting spending and regulations, and working hand in hand with Elon Musk's DOGE team. I mean, Vought has also talked about border policy and foreign aid and overhauling the federal workforce.
SHAPIRO: Trump is putting new faces in other agencies because he has said he wants them to shake things up, but he's bringing Vought and Paoletta back. Why?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's not common for high ranking officials to return to the same exact roles. I talked to Bridget Dooling, a law professor at Ohio State University who worked at OMB for over a decade and briefly overlapped with Vought. I mean, she says it signals a return on what was happening at the end of his last term.
BRIDGET DOOLING: To me, that signals a continuation of what was happening at the end of Trump's first term, which was an OMB director that was full steam ahead on Schedule F and who understood the tremendous amount of leverage that OMB has over the rest of the federal government and was quite eager to use that leverage in service of their agenda.
ORDOÑEZ: Schedule F, of course, is the push to reclassify large chunks of federal workers as political staffers who could be fired and replaced with allies, and Vought has talked about reviving that idea.
SHAPIRO: Just briefly, Vought and his deputy would have to be confirmed by the Senate. Will they have an easy time of it?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, that's to be seen. I mean, Vought and Paoletta are some of the strongest advocates for the White House taking more control over how congressional appropriations are spent. It's something called impoundment. It's kind of this wonky word, but it's something that we're likely to hear a lot about more in the coming months. I mean, these confirmations for OMB are a real test for this Congress to see how much they're willing to fight to protect their own power of the purse.
SHAPIRO: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thanks, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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