# Office of Management and Budget The largest office within the [[Executive Office of the President Hub]] and the president's central instrument for controlling the executive branch through money and rules. OMB assembles the annual [[President's Budget Request]], clears every agency's budget and testimony, runs regulatory review through its internal Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and apportions appropriated funds to agencies — the choke point that makes [[Rescission and Impoundment]] possible. Created in 1970 from the older Bureau of the Budget (1921). Under the second Trump administration OMB is run by [[Russell Vought]], a principal architect of [[Project 2025]] and the leading proponent of the theory that the president may **impound** (refuse to spend) funds Congress has appropriated — directly challenging the [[Impoundment Control Act]] of 1974. That makes OMB the operational center of the administration's fight over the [[Power of the Purse]] and a key node alongside [[DOGE]] in the effort to shrink and reshape the federal workforce and outlays. ## Why it matters here - **Budget formulation** — OMB builds the [[President's Budget Request]], the opening bid in the [[Federal Budget Process]]. - **[[Apportionment]] & impoundment** — OMB releases (or withholds) appropriated funds; withholding is the mechanism at issue in [[Rescission and Impoundment]]. The full pipeline this meters is traced at [[How Federal Money Moves]]. - **Regulatory review** — OIRA inside OMB reviews and can slow or reshape agency rules. - **Scorekeeping rival** — OMB's numbers often diverge from the independent [[Congressional Budget Office]]; whose baseline wins shapes [[Baseline and Scoring]] — what ultimately counts as a cut. ## Related - [[Russell Vought]] · [[Project 2025]] · [[DOGE]] - [[Federal Budget Process]] · [[President's Budget Request]] · [[Budget Hub]] - [[Impoundment Control Act]] · [[Congressional Budget Office]]