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From left: Mark Pocan and Russell Vought
Pocan grilled Russell Vought, one of the creators of the far-right policy blueprint, in a congressional hearing.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan doesn’t think Donald Trump’s following of the far-right Project 2025’s priorities is any coincidence — no matter how much one of the project’s chief creators tries to dodge questions about it.
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Pocan, a gay Democrat from Wisconsin, grilled Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, now director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, during a House Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday. Pocan and some fellow committee members, both Democrats and Republicans, also asked Vought sharp questions on the pending budget bill, the role of the Department of Government Efficiency, and other Trump administration actions.
Project 2025, spearheaded by the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, was released last year as a blueprint for the next conservative presidential administration. During Trump’s campaign, he went to great lengths to distance himself from Project 2025, but in office he’s been following it to the letter.
Related: What is Project 2025, and what does it mean for LGBTQ+ Americans?
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“Project 2025, you are one of the authors, you’re on the advisory board, you worked for Heritage, you are basically January, February, and March in a Project 2025 calendar, right?” Pocan said. “But you were asked this weekend about it, and you said no, the administration isn’t following Project 2025. … Just tell me coincidence or not: in Project 2025, abolishing the Department of Education. You guys are doing that. Is that a coincidence?”
As Vought tried to deflect, Pocan went through other parts of Project 2025 the administration is enacting or seeking to enact: ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; defunding NPR and PBS; sending disaster management back to the states; restricting gender-affirming care; revoking security clearances; stripping federal employees of employment protections; reinstating military members who refused COVID-19 vaccinations; banning transgender people from the military; sending troops to the southern border; a federal hiring freeze; and more. He noted that a portion requiring disclosure of foreign gifts to universities apparently doesn’t apply to the president, undoubtedly a reference to Trump’s acceptance of a luxury plane from the government of Qatar.
“Are those all just coincidences that they happen to be in Project 2025?” Pocan asked.
Vought responded that Trump is the most “promises made, promises kept” president in U.S. history and that he ran on his own agenda — ignoring that on the campaign trail, Trump claimed to know nothing about Project 2025.
Related: Project 2025 creator is happy beyond his wildest dreams
Earlier, Pocan had challenged Vought on Medicare and Medicaid cuts in the budget bill, including Vought’s claim that federal funds are going to Medicaid coverage for “illegal aliens.” Such funding is banned, but Vought said it happens and is hidden because of “money laundering” and that California allows undocumented immigrants to use Medicaid. Pocan later confirmed with a colleague that California uses only state funds for Medicaid for the undocumented. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program for low-income people.
He further pushed back on Vought’s assertion that the budget bill, which includes huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, won’t increase the federal deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, investment firms, and even Elon Musk disagree, Pocan noted. Musk and some Senate Republicans oppose the bill, which has so far passed only the House, because they don’t think it cuts enough federal spending, while Democrats and even a few Republicans are concerned about cuts to Medicaid and other federal benefit programs.
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Pocan also asked Vought if he’s a Christian nationalist, believing that the country should be governed on conservative Christian principles. Vought said he’s an evangelical Christian, but he basically dodged the nationalist part.
A Republican on the committee, Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri, pressed Vought on cuts to the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, a.k.a. PEPFAR, which provides HIV treatment and prevention services to poor countries. It was started by a Republican president, George W. Bush, and Trump supported it in his first term. Alford said he endorses cuts to any “woke” programs but was worried about reductions in prevention efforts.
“There’s lifesaving treatment after you already have HIV, but there are prevention programs that PEPFAR does, which are not of the woke nature, which can prevent someone from getting HIV,” Alford asked, according to The Hill. “Are those programs going to survive?”
“It is something that our budget will be very trim on because we believe that many of these nonprofits are not geared toward the viewpoints of the administration, and we’re $37 trillion in debt,” Vought said. “So at some point, the continent of Africa needs to absorb more of the burden of providing this health care.”
