U.S. Congressman Mike Levin (D-CA) criticized President Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, for pushing a proposal that would allow the administration to block federal grants — if they don’t align with Trump’s agenda or support what the administration considers “anti-American” values.
Levin wrote: “Trump’s budget director Russ Vought is the most dangerous person you’ve never heard of. And he just proposed turning every federal grant into a loyalty test. His plan would make funding for cancer research, housing, transportation, and public health depend on one thing: whether it ‘advances the President’s policy priorities.’ Not whether it works. Not whether Congress authorized it. Whether it pleases Trump. This is the appropriations power. It belongs to Congress and to the people.”
Trump’s budget director Russ Vought is the most dangerous person you’ve never heard of.
And he just proposed turning every federal grant into a loyalty test.
His plan would make funding for cancer research, housing, transportation, and public health depend on one thing:…
— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) June 4, 2026
Levin added: “To my Republican colleagues: where are you? Congress passed this funding. You voted for it. Vought is telling you to your faces that your votes do not matter, that he and his enablers will override the law whenever it suits them. Every day you stay silent, you give away the institution you were elected to defend. Grow a spine. This is not about left or right. It is about whether Congress still exists as a coequal branch, or whether we have quietly surrendered the purse to an unelected hack who holds the Constitution in contempt. History will remember who stood up and who looked away.”
Sarah Saadian, the senior vice president of public policy and campaigns at National Council of Nonprofits, said that Vought’s proposal was an attempt by the White House to “achieve what they haven’t been able to achieve in courts.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the OMB issued a memo in May ordering federal agencies to review grants provided to “certain nonprofit organizations” including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Urban League and some legal aid groups, among others.
In its order revising the grant requirements, OMB wrote: “The revisions also aim to ensure that basic American principles of equality and equal opportunity are upheld throughout all stages of the award making process and that unlawful discrimination is no longer permitted. Proposed changes also include providing further clarification on the regulatory status of the OMB requirements and on the process for future updates to the governmentwide requirements.”
Critics like Levin are especially concerned about the review process giving more discretionary power over grant issuance to executive branch appointees. The new requirements dictate that “federal agencies heads must designate one or more senior appointees to conduct a pre-issuance review of all discretionary awards.”