Office of Management and Budget
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Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1970 |
Preceding agency |
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Headquarters | Eisenhower Executive Office Building |
Employees | 529[1] |
Annual budget | $92.8 million (FY 2011) |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Executive Office of the President of the United States |
Child agencies |
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Website | Office of Management and Budget |
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the President's Budget,[2] but OMB also measures the quality of agency programs, policies, and procedures to see if they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives.
The current OMB Director is Mick Mulvaney. However, with his appointment to acting White House Chief of Staff in January 2019,[3] many of his duties and responsibilities were assigned to Deputy Director Russell Vought.[4] The OMB Director reports to the President, Vice President and the White House Chief of Staff.
History
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The Bureau of the Budget, OMB's predecessor, was established in 1921 as a part of the Department of the Treasury by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which was signed into law by president Warren G. Harding. The Bureau of the Budget was moved to the Executive Office of the President in 1939 and was run by Harold D. Smith during the government's rapid expansion of spending during the Second World War. James L. Sundquist, a staffer at the Bureau of the Budget described the relationship between the President and the Bureau as extremely close and of subsequent Bureau Directors as politicians and not public administrators.[5]
The Bureau was reorganized into the Office of Management and Budget in 1970 during the Nixon administration.[6] The first OMB included Roy Ash (head), Paul O'Neill (assistant director), Fred Malek (deputy director) and Frank Zarb (associate director) and two dozen others.
In the 1990s, OMB was reorganized to remove the distinction between management staff and budgetary staff by combining the dual roles into each given program examiner within the Resource Management Offices.[7]
On 16 January 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a decision on the "Matter of: Office of Management and Budget- Withholding of Ukraine Security Assistance." The GAO report found that, "In the summer of 2019, OMB withheld from obligation approximately $214 million appropriated to DOD for security assistance to Ukraine. (...) OMB withheld amounts by issuing a series of nine apportionment schedules with footnotes that made all unobligated balances for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) unavailable for obligation. (...) Pursuant to our role under the ICA, we are issuing this decision. (...) we conclude that OMB withheld the funds from obligation for an unauthorized reason in violation of the ICA.1 See 2 U.S.C. § 684. We also question actions regarding funds appropriated to the Department of State (State) for security assistance to Ukraine."[8][9] The Center for Public Integrity found that, "OMB’s actions did not comply with any of the exceptions to the law’s demand that a president carry out congressional spending orders, the GAO said in its nine-page report. 'OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted,' the report states. 'Therefore we conclude that OMB violated' the act."[9]
Purpose
OMB prepares the President's budget proposal to Congress and supervises the administration of the executive branch agencies. OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the president's budget and with administration policies.
OMB also oversees and coordinates the administration's procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, OMB's role is to help improve administrative management, to develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public.
OMB's critical missions are:[10]
- Budget development and execution is a prominent government-wide process managed from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and a device by which a president implements his policies, priorities, and actions in everything from the Department of Defense to NASA.
- OMB manages other agencies' financials, paperwork, and IT.
Structure
Overview
The Office is made up mainly of career appointed staff who provide continuity across changes of party and persons in the White House. Six positions within OMB – the Director, the Deputy Director, the Deputy Director for Management, and the administrators of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, and the Office of Federal Financial Management are presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed positions.
The largest component of the Office of Management and Budget are the five Resource Management Offices which are organized along functional lines mirroring the U.S. federal government, each led by an OMB associate director. Approximately half of all OMB staff are assigned to these offices, the majority of whom are designated as program examiners. Program examiners can be assigned to monitor one or more federal agencies or may be deployed by a topical area, such as monitoring issues relating to U.S. Navy warships. These staff have dual responsibility for both management and budgetary issues, as well as responsibility for giving expert advice on all aspects relating to their programs. Each year they review federal agency budget requests and help decide what resource requests will be sent to Congress as part of the president's budget. They perform in-depth program evaluations using the Program Assessment Rating Tool, review proposed regulations, agency testimony, analyze pending legislation, and oversee the aspects of the president's management agenda including agency management scorecards. They are often called upon to provide analysis information to any EOP staff member. They also provide important information to those assigned to the statutory offices within OMB, which are Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Office of Federal Financial Management, and the Office of E-Government & Information Technology whose job it is to specialize in issues such as federal regulations or procurement policy and law.
Other offices are OMB-wide support offices which include the Office of General Counsel, the Office of Legislative Affairs, the Budget Review Division (BRD), and the Legislative Reference Division. The BRD performs government-wide budget coordination and is largely responsible for the technical aspects relating to the release of the president's budget each February. With respect to the estimation of spending for the executive branch, the BRD serves a purpose parallel to that of the Congressional Budget Office for the estimation of spending for Congress, the Department of the Treasury for the estimation of revenues for the executive branch, and the Joint Committee on Taxation for the estimation of revenues for Congress.
The Legislative Reference Division has the important role of being the central clearing house across the federal government for proposed legislation or testimony by federal officials. It distributes proposed legislation and testimony to all relevant federal reviewers and distils the comments into a consensus opinion of the Administration about the proposal. They are also responsible for writing an Enrolled Bill Memorandum to the president once a bill is presented by both bodies of Congress for the president's signature. The Enrolled Bill Memorandum details the particulars of the bill, opinions on the bill from relevant federal departments, and an overall opinion about whether the bill should be signed into law or vetoed. They also issue Statements of Administration Policy that let Congress know the White House's official position on proposed legislation.
Role in the Executive budget process
In practice, the President has assigned the OMB certain responsibilities when it comes to coming up with the budget for the new year and hiring authorities who play key roles in developing the budget. OMB coordinates the development of the President’s budget proposal by issuing circulars, memoranda, and guidance documents to the heads of executive agencies. The OMB works very closely with executive agencies in making sure the budget process and proposal is a smooth process.[11]
There are many steps when it comes to the development of the budget within the executive branch which takes nearly a year to complete. The first step is the Office of Management and Budget informing the president of the economic situation of the country. The next step takes place in the spring and is known as the “Spring Guidance” in which the Office of Management and Budget provide executive agencies with instructions on policy guidance for the agencies to use when coming up with their budget requests along with thru due dates for agencies to submit their request. The OMB then works with the executive agencies to discuss issues for the upcoming budget. In July, the OMB issues circular A-11 to all agencies, which outlines clear instructions on submitting the budget proposals which the executive agencies then submit by September. The fiscal year begins October 1 and the OMB staff meet with senior agency representatives to discuss their proposals to find out if it fits in line with the president’s priorities and policies and identify constraints within the budget proposal until late November. The OMB director then meets with president and EOP advisors to discuss the budget proposals set forth by the agencies and recommends a federal budget proposal. The agencies are notified about decisions regarding their budget requests in which they can appeal to OMB and the President in December if they not satisfied with the decision. After working together to resolve issues, agencies and OMB prepare a budget justification document to present to relevant congressional committees, especially the appropriations committee. Finally, by the first Monday in February, the president must review and submit the final budget to congress to approve.[12]
The Office of Management and Budget is also responsible for the preparation of Statements of Administrative Policy (SAPs) with the president. These statements allow the OMB to communicate the presidents and agencies policies to the government as a whole and set forth policymakers agendas.[12] During the review of the federal budget, interests groups can lobby for policy change and impact the budget for the new year.[13] OMB plays a key role when it comes to policy conflicts by making sure legislation and agencies actions are consistent with that of the executive branch. The Office of Management and Budget has a very powerful and influential role in the United States Government, basically making sure the day to day operations run. Without a budget, federal employees could not be paid, federal buildings could not run and federal programs would come to a halt in what is known as a government shutdown. As a result of the OMB working closely with the president and executive branch, government shutdowns can occur when Congress refuses to accept the budget with policies which the majority party in congress does not agree with also known as a divided government.[13]
Organization
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- Deputy Director, OMB
- Executive Associate Director of OMB
- Office of General Counsel
- Office of Legislative Affairs
- Office of Communications
- Office of Economic Policy (EP)
- Office of Performance and Personnel Management (OPPM)
- Management and Operations Division
- Legislative Reference Division
- Budget Review Division (BRD)
- Resource Management Offices
- Natural Resource Programs
- Education, Income Maintenance, and Labor Programs
- Health Programs
- General Government Programs
- National Security Programs
- Deputy Director for Management (Chief Performance Officer of the United States)
- Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM)
- Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)
- Office of E-Government & Information Technology (administrator: Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States)
- Cyber and National Security Unit
- United States Digital Service (USDS)
- Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
- Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC)
Current appointees
- Director: (since January 2019[update], Russell Vought serving as Acting Director of OMB[3][4])
- Deputy Director: Russell Vought (serving as Acting Director)
- General Counsel: Mark Paoletta
- Deputy Director for Management (Chief Performance Officer of the United States): Margaret Weichert
- Controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management: vacant[14]
- Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy: Anne Rung
- Administrator of the Office of E-Government & Information Technology (Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States): Suzette Kent
- Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: vacant
- Deputy Director: Russell Vought (serving as Acting Director)
List of directors
Name[15] | Dates served[15] | President | Notes |
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Charles G. Dawes | June 23, 1921 – June 30, 1922 | Warren G. Harding | Dawes would later become Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom under Herbert Hoover |
Herbert M. Lord | July 1, 1922 – May 31, 1929 | Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover |
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J. Clawson Roop | August 15, 1929 – March 3, 1933 | Herbert Hoover | |
Lewis W. Douglas | March 7, 1933 – August 31, 1934 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
Daniel W. Bell | September 1, 1934 – April 14, 1939 | ||
Harold D. Smith | April 15, 1939 – June 19, 1946 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
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James E. Webb | July 13, 1946 – January 27, 1949 | Harry S. Truman | Webb later became the second administrator of NASA under presidents Kennedy and Johnson |
Frank Pace, Jr. | February 1, 1949 – April 12, 1950 | ||
Frederick J. Lawton | April 13, 1950 – January 21, 1953 | ||
Joseph M. Dodge | January 22, 1953 – April 15, 1954 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
Rowland R. Hughes | April 16, 1954 – April 1, 1956 | ||
Percival F. Brundage | April 2, 1956 – March 17, 1958 | ||
Maurice H. Stans | March 18, 1958 – January 21, 1961 | ||
David E. Bell | January 22, 1961 – December 20, 1962 | John F. Kennedy | |
Kermit Gordon | December 28, 1962 – June 1, 1965 | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
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Charles L. Schultze | June 1, 1965 – January 28, 1968 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Schultze later served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under president Jimmy Carter. |
Charles J. Zwick | January 29, 1968 – January 21, 1969 | ||
Robert P. Mayo | January 22, 1969 – June 30, 1970 | Richard Nixon | |
George P. Shultz | July 1, 1970 – June 11, 1972 | Shultz had previously served president Nixon as Secretary of Labor and would later serve under him as Secretary of the Treasury and under Ronald Reagan as Secretary of State. | |
Caspar W. Weinberger | June 12, 1972 – February 1, 1973 | Weinberger later served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under presidents Nixon and Ford, and as Secretary of Defense under president Reagan | |
Roy L. Ash | February 2, 1973 – February 3, 1975 | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
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James T. Lynn | February 10, 1975 – January 20, 1977 | Gerald Ford | Lynn left to head Aetna Insurance |
Bert Lance | January 21, 1977 – September 23, 1977 | Jimmy Carter | Lance resigned amid a corruption scandal |
James T. McIntyre | September 24, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | ||
David A. Stockman | January 21, 1981 – August 1, 1985 | Ronald Reagan | |
James C. Miller III | October 8, 1985 – October 15, 1988 | ||
Joseph R. Wright, Jr. | October 16, 1988 – January 20, 1989 | ||
Richard G. Darman | January 25, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | George H. W. Bush | |
Leon E. Panetta | January 21, 1993 – October 1994 | Bill Clinton | Panetta became president Clinton's Chief of Staff and served under president Obama as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and later as Secretary of Defense |
Alice M. Rivlin | October 17, 1994 – April 26, 1996 | Rivlin became a governor of the Federal Reserve after leaving OMB | |
Franklin D. Raines | September 13, 1996 – May 21, 1998 | Raines became CEO of Fannie Mae | |
Jack Lew | May 21, 1998 – January 19, 2001 | Jacob Lew served as deputy director of OMB from 1995 to 1998 and would serve as director again under Obama from 2010 to 2012 | |
Mitch Daniels | January 23, 2001 – June 6, 2003 | George W. Bush | Daniels left and successfully ran for governor of Indiana |
Joshua B. Bolten | June 26, 2003 – April 15, 2006 | Bolten became president Bush's Chief of Staff | |
Rob Portman | May 26, 2006 – June 19, 2007 | Portman had previously served president Bush as United States Trade Representative and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 2010. | |
Jim Nussle | September 4, 2007 – January 20, 2009 | ||
Peter R. Orszag | January 20, 2009 – July 30, 2010 | Barack Obama | Orszag became Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment Banking and Chairman of the Financial Strategy and Solutions Group at Citigroup |
Jeffrey Zients | July 30, 2010 – November 18, 2010 | Acting Director during remainder of Orszag's term | |
Jack Lew | November 18, 2010 – January 27, 2012 | Previously served under Clinton from 1998 to 2001. Resigned to become Chief of Staff, and later Secretary of the Treasury | |
Jeffrey Zients | January 27, 2012 – April 24, 2013 | Acting Director during remainder of Lew's term | |
Sylvia Mathews Burwell | April 24, 2013 – June 9, 2014 | Former deputy director of OMB under president Clinton. Resigned to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services | |
Brian Deese | June 9, 2014 – July 28, 2014 | Acting Director after Burwell resigned. | |
Shaun Donovan | July 28, 2014 – January 20, 2017 | Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama. | |
Mark Sandy | January 20, 2017 – February 16, 2017 | Donald Trump | |
Mick Mulvaney | February 16, 2017 – March 31, 2020 | Previously served as the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 5th congressional district from 2011 to 2017. Became Acting White House Chief of Staff on January 2, 2019, but remained as OMB Director.[3][4] | |
Russell Vought | January 2, 2019 – present | Acting Director during Mulvaney's service as Acting White House Chief of Staff from January 2, 2019 – March 31, 2020.[3][4] |
See also
Trump–Ukraine scandal |
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- Data.gov
- USAFacts
References
- ^ "FedScope". Office of Management and Budget. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
- ^ "The Mission and Structure of the Office of Management and Budget".
- ^ a b c d Cook, Nancy. "Mulvaney eggs Trump on in shutdown fight". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
- ^ a b c d "Budget Head Mulvaney Picked as Trump's Acting Chief of Staff | RealClearPolitics". realclearpolitics.com. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
- ^ Oral History Interview with James L. Sundquist, Washington, D.C., July 15, 1963, by Charles T. Morrissey, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/sundquis.htm
- ^ "Executive Orders". Archives.gov. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
- ^ "OMB Organization Chart" (PDF). Office of Management and Budget.
- ^ Armstrong, Thomas H. (2020-01-16). "Decision, Matter of: Office of Management and Budget—Withholding of Ukraine Security Assistance" (PDF). gao.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
In the summer of 2019, OMB withheld from obligation approximately $214 million appropriated to DOD for security assistance to Ukraine. See Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019, Pub. L. No. 115-245, div. A, title IX, § 9013, 132 Stat. 2981, 3044–45 (Sept. 28, 2018). OMB withheld amounts by issuing a series of nine apportionment schedules with footnotes that made all unobligated balances for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) unavailable for obligation. See Letter from General Counsel, OMB, to General Counsel, GAO (Dec. 11, 2019) (OMB Response), at 1–2. Pursuant to our role under the ICA, we are issuing this decision. Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-344, title X, § 1015, 88 Stat. 297, 336 (July 12, 1974), codified at 2 U.S.C. § 686. As explained below, we conclude that OMB withheld the funds from obligation for an unauthorized reason in violation of the ICA.1 See 2 U.S.C. § 684. We also question actions regarding funds appropriated to the Department of State (State) for security assistance to Ukraine.
- ^ a b Smith, R. Jeffrey (16 January 2020). "GAO report backs private Pentagon conclusions that Trump broke the law on Ukraine". Center for Public Integrity. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
OMB's actions did not comply with any of the exceptions to the law's demand that a president carry out congressional spending orders, the GAO said in its nine-page report. "OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted," the report states. "Therefore we conclude that OMB violated" the act.
- ^ Organization Mission at archive of OMB site}
- ^ 1951-, Berman, Larry (2015-03-08). The Office of Management and Budget and the presidency, 1921-1979. Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 9781400867288. OCLC 905862779.
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has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Shambaugwh IV, Weinstein Jr., George E., Paul J (2016). The Art of Policymaking. Thousand Oaks, California: CQ Press. pp. 109–113. ISBN 978-0321081032.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Haeder, Simon F.; Yackee, Susan Webb (August 2015). "Influence and the Administrative Process: Lobbying the U.S. President's Office of Management and Budget". American Political Science Review. 109 (3): 507–522. doi:10.1017/S0003055415000246. ISSN 0003-0554.
- ^ "After 2 years, OMB still lacks permanent controller and that's a problem". Federal News Network. 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
- ^ a b "Directors of The Office of Management and Budget and The Bureau of the Budget". Office of Management and Budget(Archived). Retrieved 18 October 2009.
External links
- Official website
- Office of Management and Budget in the Federal Register
- Budget of the United States government and supplements, 1923–present
- Death and Taxes: 2009 A visual guide and infographic of the 2009 United States federal discretionary budget request as prepared by OMB
- "The Decision Makers: Office of Management and Budget" GovExec.com, August 22, 2005