A Guide to the Office of Management and Budget

What is the Office of Management and Budget?

The Office of Management and Budget is a Federal agency that operates within the United States of America that is responsible for assisting the President of the United States in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise the administration in Executive Branch agencies. The Office of Management and Budget is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Office of Management and Budget Quick Facts:

The following details outline the administration of the Office of Management and Budget:

The Office of Management and Budget was founded in 1970

The headquarters of the Office of Management and Budget are located in the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The head of the Office of Management and Budget is Jacob Lew

History of the Office of Management and Budget:

The Office of Management and Budget was established as a part of the Department of the Treasury through the passing of Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. This legislation was signed into law by President Warren G. Harding; at this time, the Office of Management and Budget was simply known as the Bureau of the Budget. The predecessor of the Office of Management and Budget was moved to the EOP in 1939 and later reorganized to form the newly-founded Office of Management and Budget in 1970 during the Nixon Administration.

The first director of the Office of Management and Budget was Roy Ash; during this time Paul O’Neill acted as the assistant director, Fred Malek was the deputy director and Frank Zard was the associate director.

In the 1990s the Office of Management and Budget was reorganized to remove the distinction between the budgetary staff and the management staff, by combing those dual roles into separate programs within the Resource Management Offices.

Function of the Office of Management and Budget:

The Office of Management and Budget primary mission is to assist the President of the United States in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise the administration of the Executive Branch. By helping the President formulate spending plans, the Office of Management and Budget evaluates the effectiveness of agency policies, procedures and programs to assess competing funding demands among agencies.

As a result of this evaluation process, the Office of Management and Budget also establishes and sets funding priorities. Furthermore, the Office of Management and Budget ensures that agency reports, testimonies, rules and proposed legislation meet the President’s budgetary goals.

The Office of Management and Budget also coordinates and oversees the Administration’s procurement, information, regulation and financial management efforts. By fulfilling each of these responsibilities, the Office of Management and Budget aims to improve administrative management to better develop performance measures and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public.

Government Agency of the Executive Branch:

Government agencies are defined as organizations, councils, and offices operating under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government of the United States of America; each federal agency retains specific administrative jurisdiction over specific facets latent within the operations of the United States Government.

The Office of Management and Budget functions as a government agency under the Executive Branch of the United States government, which is comprised of 3 total branches; in addition to the Executive branch – which is responsible for the regulation and enforcement of operational legislation existing within the United States of America – there also exists the Legislative and Judicial Branches.

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