Director of the Office of Management and Budget

The post traces to the first Director of the Bureau of the Budget in 1921 and became Director of the Office of Management and Budget when OMB replaced the Bureau in 1970. After clashes with the Nixon administration over impounded funds, Congress required Senate confirmation of the Director and Deputy Director in a law signed on March 2, 1974. Most presidents have given the Director cabinet rank, and the Director is often among the most powerful officials in the executive branch.

The Director leads the preparation of the President's annual budget proposal, negotiates spending deals with Congress, and through the apportionment process controls when and how agencies may spend the money Congress appropriates. OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, under the Director, reviews significant agency regulations before they are issued, and the Director's office clears agency testimony and legislative proposals, oversees federal management and information technology, and issues guidance to agencies on matters from grants to shutdown planning.

Because apportionment gives the Director leverage over spending, the office has been at the center of fights over the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which bars the President from withholding appropriated funds without congressional approval. In 2025 OMB withheld or delayed large sums at many agencies, sent Congress rescission requests, and in late August used a so-called pocket rescission near the end of the fiscal year, while the Government Accountability Office found that several withholdings violated the law. Supporters said the Director was enforcing the President's priorities and curbing waste, while critics said the actions usurped Congress's power of the purse.