As the government shutdown enters its third full week, the Trump administration is freezing

billions of dollars in infrastructure funding across the country. Office of Management and Budget

Director Russell Vote announced on social media today that his office is halting more than

$11 billion in projects nationwide, many of them in Democratic-led cities. As our Liz Landers reports, it's the latest in a series of controversial moves by vote,

who has used the shutdown to advance the president's political agenda and oversee mass layoffs of federal workers.

The chief of the White House Budget Office is rarely in the spotlight, but Russ Vote, who leads

the Office of Management and Budget, has become a key figure in the government shutdown.

And even the star of a meme video shared by the president on social media.

They call him Darth Vader, but he's actually a very nice person.

Vote has been a key power broker during the shutdown, using his ex-account to announce

the government will freeze projects in blue states and sharing veiled threats to fire

federal workers.

If there's no funding for these programs, then what would you have us do?

Yeah, I called for trauma within the bureaucracies.

The bureaucracies hate the American people.

How influential has he been in this shutdown from what you've seen?

I think very influential.

Anytime you see a story about funding being halted, he's the one at the

head of that chain of command making those calls. Damon Linker teaches political science at the

University of Pennsylvania. He compares vote to an air traffic controller.

He knows where the money is coming from, where it's supposed to be going,

who the key players in the administration and in the government are

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