2. Executive Office of the President · Minor
Put a political appointee in charge of the ONDCP budget office
Printed page 62 2. Executive Office of the President
“Whereas the position for overseeing budget activities is traditionally held by a career official, it is imperative that a political appointee lead the ONDCP budget office to ensure coordination between the OMB Program Associate Director and the ONDCP budgetary appointee.”
What has happened
- Not started
The budget office is identified and its head is not. ONDCP's FY2027 Congressional Budget Submission, read in full, names the component the Quote is about — the **Office of Performance and Budget (OPB)**, one of nine offices on the organization chart — and describes it as "the main coordinating body for ensuring that NDCPAs request the resources adequate to implement the Strategy", which also "handles the drafting of statutorily required budget and performance documents" and whose "Assistant Director serves as the statutorily mandated Performance Budget Coordinator". What the submission does not do is name the incumbent or say whether the post is political: it lists no officials at all, and its personnel tables are by grade only — 72 permanent positions, of which 2 EX and 12 SES, unchanged across FY2025, FY2026 and FY2027. Whether OPB's Assistant Director is a political appointee is a staffing fact no budget justification records; ONDCP publishes no leadership roster (`whitehouse.gov/ondcp/` carries a description of the office and no names), and the Corpus's nomination file holds only the two Director nominations, the post being below the level that generates one.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Negative search. Our roster of officials has no current office matching an ONDCP budget role. In the federal records we keep and search: ONDCP documents in the Federal Register (four in the window); a search of Senate nominations for “drug control” returns only the two Director nominations.
Reviewed 2026-09-06. ONDCP’s budget justification was opened and it does not name the official. The 50-page document could be read directly. The read did three things: it named the office (Office of Performance and Budget, whose Assistant Director is the statutory Performance Budget Coordinator under 21 U.S.C. 1703), it established that the document carries no personnel names and no appointment types, and it turned up something the item’s earlier note got wrong on a different ask — see #98, where this same submission proposes transferring both ONDCP grant programs and the FY2027 request for each is $0.
How far the negative reaches: it is now strong about ONDCP’s own published budget documents and about the nomination record, and it remains weak about agency practice. A Schedule C or non-career SES placement inside a nine-person-office EOP component leaves no allowlisted trace unless the office chooses to publish one, and ONDCP publishes no staff directory. The Plum Book, which lists positions subject to noncompetitive appointment by agency, is the remaining instrument to try; it would settle whether OPB’s Assistant Director is one of ONDCP’s political slots, though not who fills it.
Unified Agenda (reginfo.gov, checked 2026-09-01). ONDCP’s entire 2026 active agenda is one RIN — 3201-AA03, Revisions to Subtitle B of Title 2 on Federal Financial Assistance, Proposed Rule Stage, First Time Published in The Unified Agenda, 2 CFR part 3603 — ONDCP’s companion to OMB’s Uniform Guidance revision (0348-AB88, tracked on #55). It does not name the budget office or its leadership. Who leads that office is a staffing fact no rulemaking would record, so the agenda neither confirms nor rebuts the note above; the question stays open.
- Action
- appoint
- Object
- ONDCP budget office leadership
- ID
- 97