WATCH: OMB chief Vought on how to get nation’s debt under control in Trump budget hearing

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., asked Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a hearing Thursday if it was possible to get the nation’s overall debt under control through the normal budgeting process.

“Right now, where the Senate is, and the inability to get spending cuts – honestly without spending cuts – to fund the federal government through the normal appropriations process, it's making there to be an incentive to move more and more things to mandatory,” he said. “That's the direction that things are heading.”

Vought, a key figure in the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal workforce, also defended the president's budget request in a House hearing Wednesday.

President Donald Trump's funding wish list for fiscal year 2027 includes a staggering bump for defense spending — a nearly 50% increase to $1.5 trillion — to build his "dream military."

The president's budget request is not final, but it does signal the Trump administration's priorities for the coming fiscal year. Though Trump has tried to exert more authority over spending in his second term, it's up to both chambers to revise and approve the final budget in the coming months.

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