OMB plows forward with Trump budget despite election loss
November 10, 2020
The Office of Management and Budget is preparing to move forward with President Donald Trump’s budget request for next fiscal year in another sign of the White House refusing to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
An OMB spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the administration is moving forward with a fiscal 2022 budget proposal, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
Biden is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20 — at least two weeks before the White House typically releases its annual budget proposal in February, which lays out an administration’s priorities for the coming fiscal year. The OMB official did not respond to a follow-up request for comment about the decision to draw up a budget, given that Trump won’t be in the Oval Office in February to unveil the plan.
“If President Trump wants to waste time and resources on a budget that will never see the light of day, that’s his decision,” said Alexandra Weinroth, communications director for House Budget Committee. “But we look forward to receiving the budget of our 46th President, Joe Biden, in February.“
Key context: The administration’s insistence on pulling together a budget request comes as Trump contests the results of the election and as Republicans lend credence to his voting-related legal challenges. For example, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday refused to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect and expressed support for Trump’s legal moves.
Transition picks to review OMB: Meanwhile, Biden’s transition team is moving forward with plans to transfer power, despite Trump’s denial of the election results and other parts of federal government stalling the transition. Biden’s transition on Tuesday named “agency review teams” to gather information about federal agency operations.
The team charged with scrutinizing OMB will be made up of volunteers, including: Martha Coven of Princeton University; Brandon Belford of Lyft, Inc.; Bridget Dooling of George Washington University; Cristina Killingsworth of WestExec Advisors; Divya Kumaraiah of Airbnb, Inc.; Elisa Montoya of Meow Wolf, Inc.; Mark Schwartz of Amazon Web Services; Samantha Silverberg of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; and Christen Linke Young of the Brookings Institution.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
