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Office of Management and Budget (OMB)


Self Description

November 2008: "OMB's predominant mission is to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. In helping to formulate the President's spending plans, OMB evaluates the effectiveness of agency programs, policies, and procedures, assesses competing funding demands among agencies, and sets funding priorities. OMB ensures that agency reports, rules, testimony, and proposed legislation are consistent with the President's Budget and with Administration policies.

In addition, OMB oversees and coordinates the Administration's procurement, financial management, information, and regulatory policies. In each of these areas, OMB's role is to help improve administrative management, to develop better performance measures and coordinating mechanisms, and to reduce any unnecessary burdens on the public."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/organization/role.html

Third-Party Descriptions

November 2008: "A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds....The White House Office of Management and Budget received the proposal on Aug. 21 and cleared it on the same day, according to a government Web site that keeps track of the rule-making process."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/washington/18abort.html

September 2008: "The new EPA proposal -- which assumes the maximum allowable perchlorate contamination level is 15 times what the EPA had suggested in 2002 -- was heavily edited by officials of the White House Office of Management and Budget. They eliminated key passages and asked the EPA to use a new computer modeling approach to calculate the chemical's risks."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/21/AR2008092102352.html

October 2007: The loan guarantees have become a major battlefront. As the industry points out that current limits on the program make the guarantees meaningless, and higher amounts alarm budget officials, the Office of Management and Budget needs to calculate the risk of default to account for the cost of the guarantees. Based on past performance of nuclear plants, that cost might be awfully steep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701324.html

May 2007: The Office of Management and Budget is requiring federal agencies and departments to enact by June 30 basic standards aimed at eliminating fraud and abuse of the transit-benefit program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602484.html

February 2004: A White House Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, bulletin drafted in August 2003 would allow the government to hand-pick scientists to second-guess scientific research, opponents say. The text of the bulletin says its purpose would be to ensure that all research affecting federal regulations, such as environmental or health advisories, would be thoroughly peer reviewed by unbiased researchers.

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,62119,00.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Possible/Unclear Federal Inspectors General (IG) Organization Feb 8, 2006
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Organization Jul 13, 2005
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) White House (Presidential advisory staff) Organization Apr 4, 2004
Organization Executive (past or present) Joseph R. Antos Ph.D. Person Jan 28, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Donald R. Arbuckle Person Jun 11, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Joshua B. Bolten Person Apr 4, 2004
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., Esq. Person Jun 15, 2006
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Prof. John Graham Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Michael J. Horowitz Esq. Person Jan 8, 2007
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Clay Johnson III Person May 19, 2004
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Jay P. Lefkowitz Esq. Person Jul 25, 2004
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Robert E. Litan Esq. Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Frederic "Fred" V. Malek MBA Person Aug 19, 2005
Organization Executive (past or present) Sean O'Keefe Person Feb 8, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Leon Edward Panetta Esq. Person Feb 20, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Rep. Robert "Rob" Jones Portman Person Feb 4, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Franklin D. Raines Esq. Person Jun 17, 2011
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Alice A. Rivlin Ph.D. Person Mar 26, 2010
Organization Executive (past or present) Isabel V. Sawhill Person Mar 1, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) George P. Schultz Ph.D. Person Dec 2, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) George Pratt Shultz Person Jan 9, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) David Alan Stockman Person Feb 10, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Prof. Peter B. Swire Esq. Person Oct 13, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) James "Jim" J. Tozzi Person Jul 13, 2005
Organization Executive (past or present) Michael "Mikey" L. Weinstein Esq. Person Feb 10, 2006

Articles and Resources

54 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 21, 2009 When Less Paperwork Means No Science: The Paperwork Reduction Act and Unintended Consequences for Public Health Research

QUOTE: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 has had the unintended effect of impeding research and evaluation in public health.

 Science Progress
Aug 22, 2009 Reports Revive Debate on Contractor Use: Lawmakers, Critics Warn That Military, CIA May Rely Too Much on Private Firms

QUOTE: The disclosure that the CIA once hired Blackwater USA for elements of an assassination program has brought back into focus the wide range of intelligence and military activities that are being contracted out to private firms.

 Washington Post
Aug 10, 2009 Alaskans question cost of supporting rural outposts: With federal stimulus money going to build infrastructure in tiny, remote communities, many in the state wonder if it's worthwhile.

QUOTE: The cost of keeping rural Alaska afloat has been one of the state's most enduring challenges. Now a place that sees itself as the nation's last frontier, where countless communities depend on bush planes and boats for their food and fuel deliveries, is having to support its outposts in an age of cable television, cellphone networks and the Internet.

 Los Angeles Times
Jul 31, 2009 Federal Agencies Diverted Earmark Money

QUOTE: Thirteen federal agencies took nearly half a billion dollars off the top of Congressional earmarks for administrative expenses in 2008, nearly 3 percent of the total amount that members of Congress had directed to pet projects in federal spending bills.

 New York Times
Jul 28, 2009 Use of tracking cookies on government sites sparks privacy concern

QUOTE: Privacy advocates are raising questions about a proposal to revamp the use of tracking cookies on federal government Web sites.

 Computerworld
Jul 22, 2009 Nobody's Normal Anymore: Should we blame overdiagnosis for rising health costs?

QUOTE: It's tempting to complain that Americans today are wussy hypochondriacs, overmedicated and overtreated for all kinds of imagined disorders. Some of them no doubt are. But, to take my personal experience as an example, many aren't.

 Slate
Jul 06, 2009 Report Faults Performance Bonuses for Contractors: Some Agencies 'Unaware' of Policy

QUOTE: Federal agencies have awarded billions in bonuses to contractors regardless of whether the work was deemed satisfactory...

 Washington Post
Jun 25, 2009 Heading for the emergency room (Reforming American health care)

QUOTE: The American health-care system, which gobbles up about 16% of the country’s economic output, is by far the most expensive in the world...

 Economist
Nov 18, 2008 Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers

QUOTE: A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

 New York Times
Sep 22, 2008 EPA Unlikely to Limit Perchlorate in Tap Water

QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from the White House and the Pentagon, is poised to rule as early as today that it will not set a drinking-water safety standard for perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children across the nation.

 Washington Post
Jul 11, 2008 EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year: Instead of New Rules, More Comment Sought (Green)

QUOTE: The Supreme Court, in a decision 15 months ago that startled the government, ordered the EPA to decide whether human health and welfare are being harmed by greenhouse gas pollution from cars, power plants and other sources, or to provide a good explanation for not doing so. But the administration has opted to postpone action instead, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

 Washington Post
May 20, 2008 Not All Earmarks Are Paid in Full, and a Senator Wants to Know Why

QUOTE: While many of his questions remain unanswered, Mr. Nelson says that federal agencies have been taking a cut from earmarked funds for years, some for unrelated purposes as varied as staff salaries and postage stamps. Mr. Nelson calls the practice “earmark skimming,” and lately he has become increasingly vocal over what he describes as unaccountable federal bureaucrats diverting millions of dollars into agency “slush funds

 New York Times
May 06, 2008 A Living, Breathing Lobby: Oxygen-Supply Firms Turn to Customers for Help on the Hill

QUOTE: pitting the multibillion-dollar industry that supplies oxygen to medical patients against a large number of lawmakers and Medicare, which said it was being charged many times more for oxygen equipment rentals than the actual cost.

 Washington Post
Apr 09, 2008 Federal Credit Cards Misused: GAO Cites Charging Of Frivolous Items

QUOTE: Federal employees used government credit cards to pay for lingerie, gambling, iPods, Internet dating services, and a $13,000 steak-and-liquor dinner, according to a new audit from the Government Accountability Office, which found widespread abuses in a purchasing program meant to improve bureaucratic efficiency.

 Washington Post
Mar 27, 2008 Puerto Rico's Governor Is Charged With Corruption

QUOTE: The governor of Puerto Rico has promised he will surrender to the FBI today after being accused in an indictment of soliciting thousands of dollars in improper contributions in exchange for favors and government contracts on the U.S. commonwealth island.

 Washington Post
Oct 21, 2007 The Wrong Way to Save Right Whales? Plan to Slow Ship Speeds Stalls as Agencies Fight

QUOTE: The question of how best to protect right whales -- which got their name as the "right whale" to kill in the heyday of whaling because they floated after being harpooned -- has proved vexing to regulators, since attempts to protect them have economic consequences for powerful political constituencies, including international shipping interests and Maine lobstermen.

 Washington Post
Oct 08, 2007 Nuclear Power Primed for Comeback: Demand, Subsidies Spur U.S. Utilities

QUOTE: Many environmental groups, torn between concern about climate and long-standing antipathy toward nuclear power, are seizing on the cost issue. "We're not an anti-nuclear group," says Jeremy Symons, executive director of the global warming program at the National Wildlife Federation. "But it doesn't make sense for the government to be investing in nuclear when the money could be put into renewables and energy efficiency."

 Washington Post
Jun 13, 2007 Earmark Dispute Bogs Down Homeland Security Bill: House Committee Chairman Wants Lawmakers' Pet Projects Excluded Until Later in Appropriations Process

QUOTE: The congressional spending season began with a blowup over earmarks in the House yesterday, as the first bill to reach a vote prompted a White House veto threat and scores of amendments from Republicans furious with Democrats' handling of pet-project spending in the measures.

 Washington Post
Jun 07, 2007 Another Guilty Plea Expected in Abramoff Probe

QUOTE: Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, is charged with obstructing Senate proceedings for obscuring the extent of her relationship with Abramoff and J. Steven Griles...

 Law.com
May 20, 2007 Tainted Chinese Imports Common: In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments

QUOTE: For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

 Washington Post

54 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]