Office of Management and Budget


The Office of Management and Budget is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. OMB's most prominent function is to produce the President's Budget, 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 OMB Director reports to the President, Vice President and the White House Chief of Staff. The current OMB Director is Russell Vought.

History

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.
The Bureau was reorganized into the Office of Management and Budget in 1970 during the Nixon administration. The first OMB included Roy Ash, Paul O'Neill, Fred Malek and Frank Zarb 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.

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:
  1. Budget development and execution is a prominent government-wide process managed from the Executive Office of the President and a device by which a president implements his policies, priorities, and actions in everything from the Department of Defense to NASA.
  2. 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 OMBthe 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, 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.
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.
The Office of Management and Budget is also responsible for the preparation of Statements of Administrative Policy 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. During the review of the federal budget, interests groups can lobby for policy change and impact the budget for the new year. 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.

Organization