“Imagine a world where Russell Vought and the DOGE team team up, and it’s a team that can do such harm and pain for America,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon.

“They team up to eradicate the funding they allege is wasteful — what would it mean for the kids at school who struggle to get a good meal? They’ll say it’s wasteful. Or the parents who struggle to pay groceries and the things we do to try to keep food costs down, they’ll say it’s wasteful,” Schumer added.

At least three dozen Democratic senators will be part of a 30-hour talkathon in an effort to show they are fighting to stop Vought’s nomination. There’s virtually nothing Democrats can do to block Vought’s confirmation, but they can delay it. While Republicans have a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, Democrats are able to slow down the process in a messaging play to warn about the threat they say Vought poses as the leader of the agency where President Donald Trump is trying to consolidate power.

Vought’s nomination is coming to a final Senate vote a week after an OMB memo came out directing agencies to temporarily halt nearly all federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance to beneficiaries in an effort to determine whether the spending complies with the president’s agenda. The White House rescinded the memo to “end confusion” after it faced legal challenges. While Vought was not technically atop the agency at the time, the White House indicated he was involved in the process. 

Democrats continue to sound the alarm over Vought’s ties to Project 2025 and their warnings only grew after OMB’s memo last week that called to freeze a large swath of federal funding, stressing that it’s a foreshadowing of how Vought intends to operate as head of OMB.

“We saw it last week, when they literally froze all federal funding, not even with the pretext of ‘Hey, we’re just going to review this and make sure there’s no fraud, waste, and abuse,’ They just shut down the Medicaid portal. They shut down Head Start,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday. 

“This is the ability for the executive branch to literally seize power, storm into the offices of an agency that they hate and shut it down operationally and use a bunch of white shoe law firms’ fancy-pants words to develop a pretext for eviscerating the United States Constitution, which clearly gives us the authority to establish spending laws,” he added.

Vought’s expected installation as budget chief comes when Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has worked to execute Trump’s cost-cutting initiatives to reduce the size of the U.S. government with remarkable speed.

Vought and Musk have been building a partnership since Trump’s victory in November, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. During Vought’s confirmation process, he told lawmakers he viewed DOGE as an advisory panel intended to guide the budget office. Since that hearing, however, Musk has been given a much larger role, with access to technology and software.

Musk and his DOGE lieutenants gained access to the government’s payment system last week and shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval. They also have taken over the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as the human resources department for the federal government. He also now has access at the General Services Administration which oversees federal property and government contracts. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) warned of unintended consequences of Musk’s actions.

“This astonishing mismanagement, turning over the federal government’s entire payment system and sidelining the most senior career official responsible for managing it also puts the country at risk of defaulting on our debt, which could trigger a global financial crisis,” Warren said. 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended the influence of Elon Musk and DOGE on Wednesday, saying the group’s oversight over government agencies is “a much welcome development.” 

“I think there’s a gross overaction in the media to what’s happening. The executive branch of government in our system has the right to evaluate how executive branch agencies are operating,” Johnson said, speaking to reporters at a press conference. “To ensure not only the intent of Congress in funding mechanisms but also the stewardship in precious taxpayer dollars is being handled well.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, told the Hill she intends to support Vought’s nomination. However, she has expressed concerns about the growing power Musk appears to have been given. 

“There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk to go far beyond what I think is appropriate,” Collins said, speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said there should be “some guardrails” surrounding Musk’s conflicts of interest. The world’s richest man has several companies that have multiple contracts with the U.S. government.

“He’s been given this responsibility, and access to Treasury files probably helps him do that in terms of finding efficiencies or more importantly finding inefficiencies,” Cramer said. “But as a major defense contractor, as a major government contractor, there have to be some guardrails,” he said.

Despite Democrat’s efforts to derail Vought’s nomination, he is expected to be confirmed by the Senate on Thursday evening.