President Trump’s Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russ Vought received harsh criticism from several Democrats, including U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), at Wednesday’s Financial Services Committee hearing.
Smith criticized Vought for his proposed rule that would give political appointees the power to approve, or not approve, federally funded cancer research grants based on Trump administration ideology.
At the hearing, Smith used an example of a federal grant devoted to detecting the source of high blood cancer rates that disproportionately affect Black children, and said according to Vought’s plan, the Trump administration would reject it because it was deemed “too DEI.”
Vought confirmed that the White House is against DEI policies. He said: “We have intended to get rid of DEI policies whenever we possibly can. How that would impact with that particular grant would be a decision for a political official, policy official, at NIH.”
Vought added, “The days of us funding CRT, because our agency heads didn’t know it was going on, we’re not doing that anymore.”
[NOTE: CRT stands for Critical Race Theory, which contends that racism is systemic in contemporary society.]
Smith criticized the process that allowed political officials, rather than scientists and medical professionals, to make final decisions around health care, saying: “I think this is just an example of the absurdity and the bias of this proposed rule and the danger of what happens when you bring in political ideology into grant-making processes, particularly around health care.”
TINA SMITH: Researchers in MN recently made a breakthrough in childhood cancer in Black kids with a National Cancer Institute grant. But it seems to me that according to your proposed rule, this type of research wouldn’t allowed because it’s ‘DEI.’
VOUGHT: We are against DEI… pic.twitter.com/OERuju6M0z
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2026
Smith shared her exchange with Vought on social media and wrote: “Cancer doesn’t give a [expletive] about DEI policies. The disease will continue impacting some populations more than others and refusing to research why is [expletive] and hurts us all.”
The senator said of Vought and the Trump administration: “These guys should have to look these kids in the eye before they cancel their hope for a new cancer treatment solely because it predominantly helps kids who don’t look like them.”
Smith added: “Imagine denying research on blood cancer in kids just because it predominantly helps Black kids.”
[NOTE: At the same hearing, Vought was also grilled regarding his tenure in his additional role as acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Vought’s leadership there ends in August, when former Capitol One executive Brian Johnson, who served as deputy director at the CFPB during the first Trump administration, becomes the permanent director of the agency, which Vought has vowed to shut down.]