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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) and is an important conduit by which the White House oversees the activities of federal agencies. OMB is tasked with giving expert advice to senior White House officials on a range of topics relating to federal policy, management, legislative, regulatory, and budgetary issues. The bulk of OMB's 500 employees are charged with monitoring the adherence of their assigned federal programs to presidential policies. OMB performs their coordination role by gathering, filtering, and promulgating the President's annual budget request, by issuing circulars dictating agency management practices, overseeing the "President's Management Agenda" (PMA)*, and by reviewing agency regulations. The Office contains significant numbers of both career and politically appointed staff; OMB staff provide important continuity within the EOP since several hundred career professionals remain in their positions regardless of which party occupies 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 ("PAS") positions.
Until mid-April 2006, the Director of OMB was Joshua B. Bolten, but Bolten was appointed to replace Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff effective April 15, 2006. On April 18, 2006, Bush nominated United States Trade Representative Rob Portman to replace Bolten; Portman was confirmed by the Senate on May 26, 2006.
Structure of OMB
The largest component of the Office of Management and Budget are the four Resource Management Offices (RMO) 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 even several federal agencies or may be assigned a topical area, such as monitoring issues relating to U.S. Navy battleships. 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 (PART) *, review proposed regulations, agency testimony, analyze pending legislation, and oversee the aspects of the PMA including agency management scorecards. In essence they are the “one stop shop” within OMB and the Executive Office of the President and 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 OIRA, OFPP, OFFM, and the Office of E-Government 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 (LRD). BRD performs government-wide budget coordination and is largely responsibly 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, BRD serves a purpose parallel to that of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) 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 clearinghouse across the federal government for proposed legislation or testimony by federal officials. LRD distributes proposed legislation and testimony to all relevant federal reviewers and distills the comments into a consensus opinion of the Administration about the proposal. They are also responsible for writing an Enrolled Bill Memorandum (EBM) to the President once a bill is presented by both bodies of Congress for the President’s signature. The EBM 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 issues Statements of Administration Policy (SAP) that let Congress know the White House’s official position on proposed legislation.
History
The Bureau of the Budget (BOB), OMB's predecessor, was established as a part of the Department of the Treasury by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. The BOB was moved to the EOP in 1939, and reorganized into OMB in 1970 during the Nixon administration. 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 those dual roles into each given program examiner within the RMO. Source
Directors of the Office of Management and Budget
| Name | Dates Served ↓ | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rob Portman | May 26, 2006 - Present | |
| Joshua B. Bolten | June 26, 2003 - April 15, 2006 | Bolten was designated on March 28, 2006, to replace Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff. |
| Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. | January 23, 2001 - June 6, 2003 | Daniels left and successfully ran for Governor of the state of Indiana. |
| Jacob J. Lew | May 21, 1998 - January 19, 2001 | Jack Lew served as Deputy Director of OMB from 1995 to 1998 |
| Franklin D. Raines | September 13, 1996 - May 21, 1998 | Raines went on to be CEO of Fannie Mae |
| Alice M. Rivlin | October 17, 1994 - April 26, 1996 | Rivlin became a Governor of the Federal Reserve after leaving OMB. |
| Leon Panetta | January 21, 1993 - October 1994 | Panetta went on to become President Clinton's Chief of Staff |
| Richard Darman | January 25, 1989 - January 20, 1993 | |
| Joseph R. Wright, Jr. | October 16, 1988 - January 20, 1989 | |
| James C. Miller III | October 8, 1985 - October 15, 1988 | |
| David A. Stockman | January 21, 1981 - August 1, 1985 | |
| James T. McIntyre | September 24, 1977 - January 20, 1981 | |
| Bert Lance | January 21, 1977 - September 23, 1977 | Lance resigned amid a corruption scandal. |
| James T. Lynn | February 10, 1975 - January 20, 1977 | Lynn left to head Aetna Insurance. |
| Roy Ash | February 2, 1973 - February 3, 1975 | |
| Caspar Weinberger | June 12, 1972 - February 1, 1973 | Weinberger would later become Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense. |
| George P. Schultz | July 1, 1970 - June 11, 1972 | |
| Robert Mayo | January 22, 1969 - June 30, 1970 | |
| Charles Zwick | January 29, 1968 - January 21, 1969 | |
| Charles Schultze | June 1, 1965 - January 28, 1968 | |
| Kermit Gordon | December 28, 1962 - June 1, 1965 | |
| David E. Bell | January 22, 1961 - December 20, 1962 | |
| Maurice H. Stans | March 18, 1958 - January 21, 1961 | |
| Percival Brundage | April 2, 1956 - March 17, 1958 | |
| Rowland Hughes | April 16, 1954 - April 1, 1956 | |
| Joseph Dodge | January 22, 1953 - April 15, 1954 | |
| Frederick Lawton | April 13, 1950 - January 21, 1953 | |
| Frank Pace | February 1, 1949 - April 12, 1950 | |
| James E. Webb | July 13, 1946 - January 27, 1949 | |
| Harold E. Smith | April 15, 1939 - June 19, 1946 | |
| Daniel W. Bell | September 1, 1934 - April 14, 1939 | |
| Lewis Douglas | March 7, 1933 - August 31, 1934 | |
| Clawson Roop | August 15, 1929 - March 3, 1933 | |
| Herbert Lord | July 1, 1922 - May 31, 1929 | |
| Charles Dawes | June 23, 1921 - June 30, 1922 |
Other famous people who worked at the OMB
Related Links
- Office of Management and Budget - organization's web site
- Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- "The Decision Makers: Office of Management and Budget" GovExec.com, August 22, 2005
- OMB Regulatory Officials By Administration
- History OMB Regulatory Review
United States Office of Management and Budget | Executive Office of the President of the United States | United States administrative law | United States budget | United States Executive Cabinet
"United States Office of Management and Budget"