WATCH: Rosa DeLauro Clashes With Russ Vought Over Grant Reviews
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) came out swinging during a House Appropriations Committee hearing this week, pressing Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought over the Trump administration’s spending plans, foreign aid cuts, and the way federal grants are being reviewed.
The argument centered on a bigger fight in Washington: how much control the White House should have over spending that Congress has already approved. According to The Hill, the Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2027 includes a 40 percent increase to the $1 trillion defense budget approved by Congress last year, along with a 10 percent cut to non-defense spending.
DeLauro said the administration was slowing down or blocking awards through political review. She pointed to delays at agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, saying the process was hurting research and science funding. At one point, she accused the administration of acting outside the law and said the committee was seeing a broader pattern across the federal government.
Vought defended the review process as a normal part of oversight. He argued that federal dollars should be checked before they go out, and that agencies need time to assess how money will be spent. He also pushed back on the idea that Congress can approve funding and expect every dollar to move immediately without review.
The exchange got sharper when DeLauro cut off Vought and raised her voice. She said, “You flout the constitution every single day, and you have been doing it for the last year and a half, and we again not going to continue to allow that to happen!”
She also said, “No president has the right to just violate the United States Constitution, and no member of this committee does that, but the administration is doing it regularly!”
Vought tried to explain the administration’s position, saying oversight of federal spending is part of the job. DeLauro kept pressing, saying the committee had not received the spend plans it expected and warning that political appointees were being inserted into the grant process.
The hearing was a clear snapshot of the bigger battle over federal spending. On one side, the administration says it wants tighter control and more scrutiny. On the other, Democrats like DeLauro say that control is turning into delay, interference, and political filtering of grants that should be decided on merit. For viewers, the clash was less about procedure and more about power: who gets the final say on the money, and how far the White House can push before Congress pushes back.