Merkley criticizes budget cuts
Senator Jeff Merkley criticized the Trump administration’s budget in a Senate hearing, arguing it cuts funding for workers while favoring the wealthy and questioning OMB director Russ Vought. The exchange was presented as an indicator of continued political pressure on education funding and public services. (theashlandchronicle.com)
Sen. Jeff Merkley used an April 16 Senate Budget Committee hearing to accuse the Trump administration of cutting domestic programs while steering money toward the wealthy and a larger military budget. (budget.senate.gov, pbs.org) Merkley, an Oregon Democrat and the committee’s ranking member, questioned Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought at a hearing on President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal in Room SD-608 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. (budget.senate.gov) The White House released that budget request on April 3, 2026, and asked Congress to approve $2.2 trillion in discretionary spending, including $660 billion for nondefense agencies, which outside budget analysts described as a 10 percent cut from fiscal 2026 enacted levels. (whitehouse.gov, hklaw.com) The same request seeks $1.5 trillion in total defense budgetary resources for fiscal 2027, a sharp increase that Vought defended in House testimony one day before the Senate hearing. (whitehouse.gov, reuters.com) Education is one of the clearest examples in the budget fight. The administration asked for $76.5 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, down $2.3 billion from the 2026 enacted level, while saying it wants to “dismantle the Federal education bureaucracy” and move some programs elsewhere. (hklaw.com, whitehouse.gov) That hearing landed in a broader clash over whether the White House is following Congress’s spending laws. Senate Democrats have spent months pressing Vought over withheld or delayed funds, and even some Republicans have objected when education money approved by Congress was held back. (budget.senate.gov, abcnews.go.com) Vought is not just defending a spending plan; he is also central to the administration’s push to shrink the federal workforce and test the limits of presidential control over money Congress has already appropriated. PBS described him this week as a key figure in that effort. (pbs.org) Congress does not have to accept the president’s budget as written. Appropriators will now draft the 12 annual spending bills for the fiscal year that starts on October 1, 2026, and Merkley’s exchange with Vought showed how hard Democrats plan to press that fight. (hklaw.com, appropriations.senate.gov)
