By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate Budget Committee will move ahead on confirming President Donald Trump’s pick for budget chief Russell Vought despite calls from top Democrats for a delay after an order halting all federal grants and loans.
“The Senate Budget Committee will proceed with Mr. Vought’s nomination as scheduled,” the spokesperson for the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Lindsay Graham, said in a statement.
Top Democrats on the chamber’s appropriations and budget committees on Tuesday called for a delay after the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget ordered federal grants and loans to be “temporarily paused” until a spending review takes place. OMB said that pause was meant to give time to determine if the funding programs fall in line with Trump’s executive orders on foreign aid and climate change, as well as the reversal of “woke gender ideology” and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter, Rick Cowan, and Bo Erickson; editing by Scott Malone)
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