President Trump’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget is on the doorstep of confirmation.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-SC, was confirmed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a narrow 8-7 vote, followed by a 12-11 victory in the Senate Committee On The Budget on Feb. 2.
Mulvaney’s confirmation vote was scheduled by the committee for Wednesday, but was delayed when Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., asked for more time to review the nominee’s FBI background check.
Mulvaney’s nomination now heads to a full Senate vote, but without the support of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
Warner announced his intention not to vote for Mulvaney — a strong fiscal conservative in the House — on Feb. 2, following the senator’s trend of voting against several Trump cabinet nominees.
“I appreciate Congressman Mulvaney’s recognition of the problem posed by our national debt, but I could not disagree more with his approach to addressing the issue,” Warner said in a statement.
“It is deeply irresponsible to use the threat of a government shutdown or debt default as a political bargaining chip and the across-the-board sequestration cuts that Congressman Mulvaney has supported have hurt our military and allowed lawmakers to avoid making tough budget decisions. Moreover, Congressman Mulvaney’s continued focus on reducing the size of the federal workforce through attrition makes it clear that he is not committed to thinking strategically about the challenges our federal workers will face in the coming years.”
The South Carolina congressman had proposed past legislation to reduce the federal workforce through attrition — which aligns directly with the Trump administration’s 90-day hiring freeze — and has advocated for the broader use of analytics through the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014.
But Warner blanched at Mulvaney’s past stances on the budget, which have included his opposition to the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act — also known as the Murray-Ryan budget deal — to raise sequester spending caps.
“OMB wields enormous influence over the operations and policymaking agendas of virtually all federal agencies. If he is confirmed, I expect that Congressman Mulvaney will remain committed to fully implementing the fiscal transparency and accountability requirements in the DATA Act,” he said.
Following the committee votes, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., also voiced his intention to vote against the OMB nominee, citing Mulvaney’s budget record in the House.
“It’s difficult for me to understand how Congressman Mulvaney, who has during his congressional career advocated for extreme budget cuts and voted repeatedly to shut down the government, can step into the important role of OMB director and effectively work with other agencies and the president to make sound, responsible budget decisions,” Carper said in a statement.
Mulvaney will now await a full Senate vote for his confirmation.
