WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump ignored the law Monday.
And no one really cares.
In a more normal year, policy staff at the White House, Cabinet departments and on Capitol Hill _ along with reporters and photographers _ would be nursing post-Super Bowl hangovers with a good dose of "Analytical Perspectives" and the rest of the volumes that comprise the president's budget request.
The fiscal year 2020 budget request was due Monday, even though the FY 2019 appropriations process has still not been finished.
Interns and junior staffers used to line up outside what is now known as the Government Publishing Office early in the morning to wait for printed copies and compact discs containing the text of the books, until the internet finally made that excursion unnecessary.
And Monday would have also brought the photo-ops of the Budget Committee leadership accepting copies of the freshly printed budgets in their House and Senate offices.
A 1990 budget law actually says that Monday is the deadline for the request, but there is no penalty for not hitting the target date. It has been missed throughout history, and Congress has often failed to follow federal budget deadlines, as well.
"On or after the first Monday in January but not later than the first Monday in February of each year, the President shall submit a budget of the United States Government for the following fiscal year," the law says.
OMB itself was among the government agencies subject to the prolonged partial government shutdown, and the budget submission wouldn't normally come out ahead of the president's State of the Union address, which was rescheduled for Tuesday evening.
Besides that, the current OMB director has some extra responsibilities, with Mick Mulvaney also serving as the acting White House chief of staff. Mulvaney played golf with Trump in Florida on Sunday. Russell Vought, the deputy director, has been serving as the leader of OMB in Mulvaney's place.
A senior OMB official said in a statement last week that the budget would not be sent to the hill on schedule.
"We will not be transmitting the President's budget next week," the official said Friday. "OMB is working on a revised schedule and will provide additional information when it's available."
