The US Senate on Thursday confirmed Russell Vought as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the entity at the center of a contentious effort to freeze federal funding for aid programs.

Russ Vought, a hard-charging fiscal and social conservative with a passion for downsizing government, became President Donald Trump’s budget director for the second time Thursday when the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed him on a party-line vote.

Democrats fought the OMB nominee's confirmation, elevating a little-known agency head to the national spotlight amid larger anxieties about the fate of congressional spending authority.