Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., speaking with Newsmax before Wednesday's confirmation hearings for Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, said the position is one of the most important in the administration.

"The Office of Management and Budget is the most important office no one has ever heard of," Lankford, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on "Wake Up America." "Literally every regulation, every part of our budget all goes through that office."

Lankford said he expects to hear Vought explain how Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans will be implemented, how government spending will be cut, and how the administration will ensure government regulations protect people, rather than "implementing pain" as "they have for the last four years."

Lankford told Newsmax he will also be in confirmation hearings for CIA director nominee John Ratcliffe, who served in the previous Trump administration as the director of national intelligence.

"Those are two vital positions," Lankford said of the departments Vought and Ratcliffe could head.

Lankford was not part of the confirmation hearings for Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, but he said that the attacks made on Hegseth's past and character were "just a way to slow" him down.

"Pete Hegseth is going to be a disrupter in the Department of Defense," Lankford said. "Everyone knows it. That's why President Trump has asked him to be able to step in, to be able to have a very different perspective. He comes from a soldier's perspective."

Meanwhile, Lankford said that because he's presented several bills over the years to cut government spending, he is pleased to see Trump say he wants to deal with government inefficiency.

"He's putting a major focus on that," said Lankford. "Quite a few of us that focus on that as well are joining him in that to be able to say, let's actually solve this."

Lankford said he's putting out a bill this week to deal with background matters such as regulations, telework, and getting information out.

"We have a major report showing duplication in government," he said. "All those things are important to lay the groundwork, to be able to do a massive overhaul on how things are actually done in Washington."

Trump can take action on government efficiency in several ways, including through executive orders, Lankford added.

Meanwhile, saving money should not be a partisan issue, said Lankford.

"We're trying to invite people in from both sides of the aisle and say, let's work on the things that we know the American people want us to work on," he said.

Trump can also take quick action in his first days to accelerate deportations, the senator said.

"When he says deportations can begin the first day, he means it," said Lankford, while stressing that Trump will need extra money approved through Congress to make his demands happen.

"That's one of the priorities that we've got in the reconciliation bill," he said. "We're trying to do as quickly as possible to build more border fence, to add more agents, to add more deportation flights."

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