Senate committees to vote on OMB nominee

Two Senate committees are scheduled to vote Wednesday on the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to become the next chief of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The Senate Budget Committee will meet in a closed executive session to vote on Mulvaney's nomination, while the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled a “business meeting” to vote on the nomination. Mulvaney's nomination will advance to the Senate if it clears both committees.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized Mulvaney during one of his confirmation hearings for past efforts to cut military spending and withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. McCain, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, later said he was unsure if he could support Mulvaney's nomination.

Meanwhile, President Trump signed an order last week directing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to work with the incoming OMB chief to craft a supplemental request for fiscal year 2017 defense spending, as well as a new FY-18 budget.

Mulvaney also told lawmakers he plans to support President Trump's call to increase defense spending, but will seek to have it paid for by cuts to non-defense discretionary spending. Senate Democrats, however, have the power to block such a strategy, thereby potentially frustrating McCain's plans to substantially increase defense spending over the next five years.

Mulvaney has also said he would seek to eliminate the Pentagon's $60 billion Overseas Contingency Operations account, which is exempt from the spending caps mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Mulvaney has called the OCO account a "slush fund" and said he will, "at the very least," seek to ensure that "true 'base' budget expenditures are reflected in the top line defense discretionary numbers, and that only true war-related costs are contained in OCO."

In a report released Jan. 18, the Government Accountability Office recommends that the Defense Department collaborate with OMB to "reevaluate and revise the criteria for determining what can be included in DOD's OCO budget requests; and that DOD develop a complete and reliable estimate of enduring OCO costs to report in future budget requests."