Shaun Donovan, who served as director of the OMB under President Barack Obama and speaks regularly with career officials at the agency, said “the damage is deep and wide” at the agency.
“I have seen these moments over and over and there is no comparison,” said Donovan of past presidential transitions. “This is easily the most dangerous and has the most profound damage to be repaired.”
In the new president’s first three days in office, the Biden administration gave career personnel their power to oversee federal spending and freed up more than $ 27 billion for essential services temporarily frozen by Trump’s recent request for spending cuts, said Rob Friedlander, associate director of communications at OMB.
The Trump administration transferred this power to political appointees, away from high-ranking career officials who traditionally held it, POLITICO reported for the first time last year.
“We are fully committed to harnessing the talent and experience of the entire OMB team,” said Friedlander, “particularly the incredibly dedicated and experienced career team – to fulfill the president’s agenda and ensure that our government works for all Americans. ”
During the Trump administration, the proportion of OMB employees who said they disagree that “senior agency leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity” grew to about one-third of the agency’s employees in 2019.
A former senior OMB official who served under Democratic and Republican presidents said that “instead of OMB being a resource for the White House,” the Trump administration “turned OMB into a tool for the White House”.
“And this is a very different thing,” said the former employee. “It is a dangerous thing.”
OMB will have its hands on all parts of Biden’s agenda – drafting its first budget proposal, reviewing and approving all federal regulations before they take effect and overseeing financial management, federal procurement and information technology issues.
But the agency’s workforce does not appear to have “a lot of gas left in the tank now,” said the former employee. “You have a team that is tired. They’ve been running for four years and running in directions they don’t really believe. I don’t know if they will have the energy to respond in the way that the Biden government traditionally expects an OMB to respond. ”
The Biden government is forming, announcing a list of major political hires over the weekend.
Topher Spiro, who led health policy work at the Center for American Progress, joined the agency as an associate health director. Danny Yagan, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, will be the associate director of economic policy, after advising Pete Buttigieg during his presidential race. University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos has joined as general counsel.
The Biden administration also brought two former advisers to the Senate Budget Committee to the OMB. Michael Linden, who was senior policy advisor to Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) On the panel, joined the agency as a senior advisor. Bobby Kogan, a former chief mathematician on the committee, will serve as an adviser.
Under Trump, one of the main criticisms of the budget office is that it functioned as a rubber stamp for the Oval Office, demolishing precedents in the service of the president’s agenda. Although OMB, under previous administrations, has devised creative interpretations to promote initiatives and regulations that can create legal challenges or problems, former employees argue that it is usually in the service of a greater good.
When Trump in 2019 asked the budget office to pause aid to Ukraine after suggesting that the Eastern European country investigate Biden, the career team refused to the political appointees who followed her anyway, and the change prompted the resignation of at least two civil servants. The Government Accountability Office said later that the aid freeze – which fueled Trump’s first impeachment – came into conflict with federal budget law.
Outgoing OMB director Russ Vought said this week that Democrats’ requests for the budget department to reverse the course of several important policies “amount to a continuous overcoming of Congress and micromanagement of the executive branch’s authority to wisely manage dollars. of taxpayers “
“The Biden government will have to decide whether to govern the Executive or the Legislative,” he said in a statement.
Under Biden, the budget office could soon be run by a longtime legislative aide. The new president appointed Shalanda Young, outgoing team director and secretary of the House Appropriations Committee, to deputy secretary of the OMB under Neera Tanden, who has a broad base of political experience as a political agent and president of the liberal Center for American Progresso.
The OMB’s delay in Congressional investigations is expected to come to an abrupt end once Young and Tanden are confirmed, Deputy John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), The chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in an interview.
“Neera understands the role of OMB and how critical it is, and she will want to do things with a unified Democratic government,” said Yarmuth. “There should be no conflict. There should be no tension. And I’m looking forward to it. “