WASHINGTON — The White House is tentatively planning to release a “skinny” fiscal 2022 budget next week, followed by a full budget submission in May, multiple sources with knowledge of the planning said.
These sources, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said the dates have been changing and aren’t locked down. Office of Management and Budget officials declined to comment on timing.
Biden administration officials have complained the budget is delayed in part because President Donald Trump’s budget aides didn’t cooperate with President Joe Biden’s team during the transition period after the election.
OMB spokesman Rob Friedlander said in a statement last month that the Trump administration’s “political appointees at OMB placed severe limits on the type of assistance career professionals could provide the Biden transition team, including blocking analytical work that is necessary to developing a budget.”
Trump’s OMB director, Russ Vought, said in a Dec. 31 letter that Trump’s OMB participated in more than 45 meetings with Biden officials and provided all information requested. But he added that the budget office would not “use current OMB staff to write the (Biden transition team’s) legislative policy proposals to dismantle this Administration’s work.”
Biden administration officials have also said the lack of a full-time OMB director has set back their timetable for a full budget release. Biden’s first choice to head his budget office, Neera Tanden, withdrew her name after running into bipartisan Senate opposition.
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed longtime House Appropriations aide Shalanda Young as deputy OMB director. White House officials have said Young will be named acting budget director while they decide on a replacement for Tanden — a job Young is considered a front-runner for.
Biden is running behind previous presidents in submitting an initial limited version of the budget in their first terms.
President Barack Obama released early details on Feb. 26, 2009, and his predecessor, George W. Bush, did so on Feb. 28, 2001. Bill Clinton gave an overview in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 17, 1993.
Clinton and Bush didn’t submit full, detailed budget volumes to Congress in their first years in office until early April. Obama didn’t submit his until May 7.
Trump’s “skinny” budget, released March 16, 2017, totaled 62 pages and was limited to top-line discretionary appropriations tables and summary information for each agency. Detailed explanatory information about longer-term budget proposals and line-by-line budget numbers weren’t distributed until May 23.
Sources said Biden’s initial submission to Congress is likely to be similarly limited to discretionary topline information, with some other summary details possible.
