'I Don't Want To Hear About The Biden Administration!': Jon Ossoff Gets Fed Up With Russell Vought

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At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) questioned OMB Dir. Russell Vought.

Transcript

00:00A lot of mistakes getting made in federal personnel management, hundreds of National

00:21Nuclear Security Administration employees, those are the folks as I think you know who

00:27safeguard America's fissile material, fired, you had to scramble to hire them back for obvious reasons.

00:41That was a mistake, right? Senator, I'm here on behalf of the rescissions

00:45package. Well, you're here to answer questions that

00:47senators want to ask you. It was a mistake to fire hundreds of people responsible for

00:52the safety of America's nuclear stockpile and a mistake that you had to remedy by

00:57scrambling to rehire them. It's okay to acknowledge mistakes, Mr. Vogt. I think those questions are

01:01better posed to the agency heads that made decisions. But I'm posing it to you, Mr. Vogt.

01:06Again, I'm here to testify on the decisions that I've been a part of and to send the rescissions

01:13package. You're the budget director. Was it a mistake to fire hundreds of people responsible

01:19for safeguarding America's nuclear stockpile? It was because the administration had to scramble to

01:24rehire them, right? It was a mistake. Senator, the administration went through a very extensive

01:28department of government efficiency process that was very dynamic. Cabinet heads were making the final

01:35determinations and they made adjustments where they felt they needed to. But I'm going to let them explain

01:40those decisions. What about hundreds of food and drug administration medical device reviewers and food

01:46safety reviewers fired, I guess, accidentally and then rehired? A mistake, right? I'm going to let the

01:53cabinet secretaries explain the decisions and what was going on. I don't have the information to give

01:58you a sense of the granularity of every one of those decisions. Were you not aware, for example,

02:02until this hearing that the nuclear safety workforce had been gutted and then that decision had to be

02:11reversed? Is this the first you're hearing about that? Senator, I'm aware of many things and the extent

02:15to which the Department of Government efficiency was involved with a lot of work to make sure that

02:21we were operating government as efficiently as is possible. You know, what would be very simple is

02:28is just, yes, that was a mistake to fire hundreds of people responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear

02:34stockpile. Take credit for fixing the mistake. Hundreds of National Weather Service employees fired,

02:41scrambling to rehire them. It's a mistake. I met Mr. Vogt, a gentleman in Georgia, about a month and a half ago,

02:51whose son is an astrophysicist, recently trained by an elite US university. I mean, these are the folks that we

03:00really need serving the American people, who had just been hired by the federal government and was summarily terminated,

03:09not on the basis of any individualized determination about his performance, but simply because he was a

03:16probationary employee, who is now working in Beijing. You guys are making mistakes, and I want to focus on

03:25the mistakes that you're making at the CDC. Have you visited the CDC, Mr. Vogt, by chance? I have not. It is the

03:34the flagship epidemiological and public health agency for the country, and indeed for the world.

03:40That even the Biden administration felt the need. And you have now, you have now fired or tried to fire

03:47nearly a quarter of the workforce, correct? Senator, are you suggesting the CDC perform well in the last

03:52pandemic? I asked you whether you have fired or tried to fire a quarter of the CDC workforce. I can't answer

03:59the question because I don't have the facts in front of me. You have fired or tried to fire

04:03information to get you. You have fired or tried to fire nearly a quarter of the CDC workforce,

04:06and your budget request for FY 26 would cut the CDC budget in more than half, correct?

04:14The Center for Disease Control. No, answer the question. They were incompetent. Answer the question,

04:19Mr. Vogt. The last pandemic. Does your budget request

04:22certainly seek to cut by more than half the CDC budget? We certainly seek to cut and reduce

04:27by more than half the CDC budget. Listen, Mr. Vogt, you need to come to Georgia and visit the CDC.

04:32Good. We'll make that happen because you are destroying this institution. And whatever criticism

04:38you have about their past performance, they are essential to public health and epidemiological

04:45defense in the United States. You're crushing morale, you're crushing capability,

04:49and you're destroying my constituents' lives. And I am grateful for the commitment you've made to

04:54come to Georgia and visit the CDC and sit down with those employees. Thank you, Madam Chair.

04:58The Biden administration proposed reform. I don't want to hear about the Biden

05:01administration. You're here on behalf of the Trump administration.

05:07The witness is allowed to answer the question. The time, however, has expired, but would you like 30

05:16seconds to answer the question? I would just point out, Senator, that the Biden administration

05:22thought the need to put forward a reform proposal because of the performance of CDC

05:27in their performance in the global pandemic of COVID. The CDC can be and should be reformed.

05:36Our budget reflects that. I look forward to coming to Georgia to visit CDC. I look forward.

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