During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) questioned OMB Director Russell Vought about restoring previously reduced staff.
00:00In the President's fiscal year 2026 budget requests, OMB is requesting what you had just said, a 13.3% or $17.1 million increase for the fiscal year 2026.
00:10This increased funding would support, quote, unavoidable costs in investing in OMB's workforce, among other priorities.
00:17Would you explain what those unavoidable costs are and why OMB needs to restore staffing levels that were previously reduced?
00:23And why is OMB's need for more staff different than staffing needs in any other agency?
00:27Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:28I think the reality is we've held constant for many, many years at the 500 level, even though the size of government has increased.
00:36And so, you know, when I was in the position in the first term, I had the view that OMB should reduce its headcount.
00:45And the challenge that we found when we did that, when we pursued budgets that did not prioritize the analysis that OMB needs to do,
00:52you find yourselves in a situation where some of your key resource management offices are having to analyze programs and agencies that are growing exponentially larger.
01:06Just to give you an example, our previous resource management organization for national security had the veterans.
01:15It had all state and foreign aid.
01:19It had the entirety of the Defense Department.
01:22It had the entire intelligence community.
01:24And if you look at it compared to across the agency, you didn't have enough analysts to be able to do the job.
01:32Similarly, we're being asked to do quite an amount of work with regard to the president's deregulatory initiatives.
01:39And that is will be continued to be a priority through OIRA.
01:43That's one of the reasons we're going to need additional FTEs when it comes to being able to staff that up.
01:50Not unlike what you would see with our increases at for border security or USTR with the work that the president's doing to get more rational trade deals on the books.
01:59So in terms of unavoidable costs, you know, just because you have the same amount of staff doesn't mean that you don't have things like tech support and the work that's required to keep all of our systems up and running.
02:14And there's a lot of expenses that goes with it.
02:17But I truly believe, and I think you all believe this, too, because of the resources that you've given to GAO, that it's paramount to have enough analysts that can grapple with the size and scope of the federal government.
02:30And I think that pound for pound, an OMB career, FTE, is one of the most important from a standpoint of being able to address that need to be able to deal with our fiscal health as a country
02:44and get cost-benefit analysis and a regulatory framework that makes sense for the country.
02:51I want to focus on Executive Order No. 14158, issued on January 20th, 25th, titled Establishing and Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency.
03:00Executive Order establishes the United States Doge Service, or USDS, and within the reorganized USDS, a U.S. Doge temporary organization that is authorized through the 4th of July of next year.
03:11Who is the administrator of the Doge Service, and who is the administrator of the U.S. Doge Temporary Service, and who do they report to?
03:18The U.S. Doge Service was the former USDS, U.S. Digital Service, that was housed within OMB.
03:25With that EO, it was moved out of OMB into the Executive Office of the President as a standalone offense reporting to the Chief of Staff.
03:34It's been led by Steve Davis, and we're in the midst of, with the last week or so, of establishing the leadership on an ongoing basis.
03:46But I think the vision for Doge is, in addition to having some of the consulting work that they've done, continue in the EOP, and that's one of the reasons we have a request in, as part of the ITOR account,
03:58is that Doge would go and be far more institutionalized at the actual agency.
04:03So many Doge employees and FTEs are at the agencies working almost as in-house consultants as a part of the agency's leadership.
04:16And I think, you know, the leadership of Doge is now much more decentralized.
04:21It's the agency heads, and it has been for some time.
04:24The President has always said from day one, agency heads are in charge of their departments.
04:29And they were benefiting from the consulting that Doge was doing along the lines, and now that is much more pronounced.
04:38I appreciate that there are many jurisdictions involved in Doge's work, but OMB is front and center here,
04:43including in the subsequent Doge EOs responsible for reorganizing the federal workforce, including hiring practices,
04:49EO 14170 federal hiring, and EO 14210, the federal workforce.
04:55And so I realize that I'm about to run out of time.
04:58So we might talk about that on the second round.
