Vought embeds DOGE staff permanently inside federal agencies

OMB Director Russell Vought announced in February 2026 that DOGE affiliates had been permanently institutionalized within federal agencies as in-house consultants, funded at $45 million for 30 dedicated employees plus 120 more reimbursed through agency budgets. Vought directed agencies to freeze upward of $30 billion in spending beyond the $9.4 billion rescissions package Congress reviewed, targeting EPA, NSF, and other agencies. He simultaneously floated using impoundment to make cuts permanent without a vote — a power the 1974 Impoundment Control Act explicitly bars.