OMB chief pledges to keep appropriations process orderly

When you ask most people how this year's appropriations season will go, they let out a groan reminiscent of Lurch on "The Addams Family." But not Mitch Daniels. The Office of Management and Budget director still thinks everything may turn out OK--although he is a little less optimistic now that the Democrats have taken over the Senate. "We're very serious about this being an orderly process," Daniels said in an interview this week. Asked if the process can be smooth, Daniels said, "We'll find out." But he also said, "I'm confident we were on our way to that and I'm confident we can still do it." He conceded that working with Democrats leading the Senate may be different from working with the Republicans, but said, "We'll have to be flexible where we can be." For the past few years of the Clinton administration, then-OMB Director Jacob Lew started the season with a speech in which he projected gloom and doom: The budget resolution contained false numbers....They were too low.... Nobody believed that was the amount the government really would spend.... We would end up in a budget confrontation at the end of the fiscal year, and the confrontation would drag into November or later.... Many predict the same endgame this year. They contend education, defense and other priorities will exceed the budget resolution, and the spending caps will be increased. Daniels is making it clear that that is not acceptable. Rather than start with a speech, he opened the appropriations season with an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, in which he emphasized that the administration wants to stick with this year's budget resolution. In this week's interview, Daniels said he is trying to change the way OMB interacts with Congress to try to convince members. Republicans used to complain that OMB only entered the appropriations process at the end--when the President threatened a veto and the endgame negotiations had to begin. Daniels said OMB is trying to work with Congress at the start of the process. Asked when his office became involved, he commented, "Have been, are, will be." OMB officials already have met with appropriations subcommittee staff and will continue to do so throughout the process, Daniels said. The new strategy was a careful calculation, he said. As a former Senate staffer, he certainly realizes that members carefully protect their prerogatives.

And he kept saying OMB would be only as involved as appropriators want them to be. But having said that, Daniels added, "From the beginning, it seemed clear to me that we wanted to be in body contact with the appropriators all the way, and we have been." However, he is not sure how the appropriations dynamic changes with changeover in the Senate. "This moves the needle a little bit, but not far." As Republicans have been fond of pointing out, the membership of the Senate has not changed. But of course, being bipartisan means swallowing hard sometimes and being willing to compromise--even on pork barrel projects, a particular target of the administration. President Bush has made it clear he wants to cut down on earmarked projects. In the supplemental spending bill sent to Congress this month, Bush proposed to rescind some $93 million earmarked last year for I-49 in Arkansas--money put in the Transportation bill to try to help the unsuccessful re-election campaign of former appropriator Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark. The proposed rescission has been criticized--and clearly is a sign that Bush is targeting such projects. Even so, Daniels said the administration realizes it is going to have to be somewhat pragmatic. "We called a lot of attention to the sixfold explosion of earmarks, which is a distinctly bipartisan phenomenon," Daniels said. But he quickly added: "We do think this trend ought to be reined in, but we're realistic. To the extent that this is a lubricant to the process or a bipartisan process, we recognize that a lot of it will go on." Although Democrats have repeatedly criticized this year's budget process, Daniels believes it worked "fine." But Bush has proposed a series of budget reforms--ranging from a two-year budget cycle to an automatic continuing resolution that would go into effect if Congress did not complete the 13 annual funding bills by the end of the year. Daniels said that reform of the continuing resolution process would be a good place to start. Appropriators have said they believe an automatic continuing resolution takes away all of the incentive to complete the 13 individual bills. The administration believes just the opposite. "The President interprets it as a way to move the process to conclusion to avoid end-of-session chaos," said Daniels. And of course, end-of-session chaos is something everyone-- especially the President--would like to avoid.