Dan Bishop, a former congressmember from North Carolina, testified before senators in his first confirmation hearing to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Pledging to follow the orders of Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought, the OMB nominee vowed to \u201cfix\u201d a federal bureaucracy he characterized as \u201cself-absorbed, inefficient, unaccountable and mal-administered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop skirted a direct question about whether he would follow the law, or Trump, if the president directed him to take action that would break the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that President Trump will issue lawful orders. It would not be up to me, as serving in a non-lawyer capacity, to decide what is lawful and not lawful,\u201d Bishop, a lawyer who lost his bid in November to be the attorney general of North Carolina, told senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

Already, Bishop is serving as a senior adviser to OMB as the budget office leads the Trump administration in freezing billions of dollars in foreign aid and federal grant money, prompting federal judges throughout the country to temporarily halt many of those actions amid lawsuits challenging their constitutionality.<\/p>\n

During his five years in Congress, Bishop introduced bills he touted as a way to \u201cdrain the swamp\u201d by making it easier to fire federal workers and blocking them from doing union work while on the clock. On Tuesday, he told senators he doesn\u2019t think the Trump administration \u201cis proceeding in an indiscriminate way to terminate employees\u201d amid the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers.<\/p>\n

Despite telling senators that he won\u2019t be judging the legality of the president\u2019s demands, Bishop laid out an argument for historical precedent supporting Trump\u2019s power to freeze funding, telling senators that former President Harry Truman canceled a squadron of bombers that Congress approved despite his veto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things have happened across history by presidents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bishop also noted that Trump \u201chas run on the issue of impoundment.\u201d On the campaign trail, Trump argued that the more than 50-year-old Impoundment Control Act, which blocks presidents from withholding money without Congress\u2019 approval, is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Democrats were not impressed. \u201cI will skip the irony,\u201d Sen. Elissa Slotkin<\/a> (D-Mich.) said, \u201cof a congressman who ran for office and was deeply involved in appropriating dollars \u2014 and voting on those things for years and years and years \u2014 now being seemingly willing to give up that authority. It\u2019s a fundamental principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the aisle, Republicans gushed over Bishop.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ted Budd<\/a> (R-N.C.), who has known Bishop since he was a county commissioner in Charlotte about two decades ago, praised the OMB deputy nominee for \u201chis care for people,\u201d as well as \u201chis commitment to stopping runaway spending and getting the federal budget under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop is likely to be confirmed with the same unanimous Republican support Vought received earlier this month<\/a>. Like Bishop, Vought also would not promise senators<\/a> that he would not circumvent impoundment law, after famously freezing aid to Ukraine during Trump\u2019s first presidency. <\/p>\n

Vought is now leading the charge<\/a> to carry out Trump\u2019s executive orders demanding the freeze of foreign aid, as well as funding from the Democrats\u2019 2022 Inflation Reduction Act<\/a> and the bipartisan infrastructure package enacted in 2021. <\/p>\n

Bishop told senators on Tuesday that he is \u201cthrilled\u201d with Vought\u2019s work. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I can assure you, he is the man to get the management of the federal government back on track,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cIf confirmed, I look forward to serving as his deputy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"