The Big Story 

Democrats grilled Russell Vought, who was tapped to be President-elect Trump’s next budget chief, for his ties to Project 2025 and past involvement with Schedule F as senators considered his nomination Wednesday.

© Greg Nash

At one point during questioning by Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Vought was pressed about his implementation of a measure known as Schedule F that can make it easier for federal employees to be fired. 

Project 2025, a blueprint produced by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation that was often the target of Democratic attacks during the 2024 presidential election cycle, also makes the case for the measure’s return.

Kim asked Vought about the implementation of Schedule F during his time as head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the same post he hopes to fill once more under Trump. 

“I guess I want to ask you then, at the end of your term as OMB director, you implemented Schedule F, and you implemented that as well at OMB. Do you remember what percentage of personnel at OMB you categorized as Schedule F?” he asked.

Vought testified that the measure was “not to fire anyone,” but “to change their classification” and that it was “implemented” at “90 percent.”

He said the move was to “ensure that the president, who has policy setting responsibility, has individuals who are … responding to his views, his agenda, and it works under the same basis that most Americans work on, which is they have to do a good job or they may not be in those positions for longer.”

Schedule F, however, would end merit-based hiring protections for any member of the civil service whose position is converted.

It would make the civil service more akin to political appointees, who can be swiftly hired and fired, raising concerns it would politicize the federal workforce.  

Asked if the president-elect has had conversations about restarting Schedule F once he’s inaugurated, Vought said he doesn’t “speak to the conversations that I have with the president.”

The Hill’s Aris Folley has more here.

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