President Obama will send his annual budget to Congress on March 4, about a month late because of lawmakers’ tardy agreement on the current fiscal year’s federal spending.
“Now that Congress has finished its work on this year’s appropriations, the administration is able to finalize next year’s budget,†Steve Posner, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, said on Thursday. “We are moving to complete the budget as quickly as possible to help Congress return to regular order in the annual budget process.â€
Congress reached a bipartisan budget deal in late December, nearly three months after the 2014 fiscal year began on Oct. 1. Only then was it able to agree to specific spending levels for domestic and military programs, which it did last week. Without final figures, the president’s budget office could not complete his multivolume submission for the 2015 fiscal year.
Last year, Mr. Obama’s budget arrived even later, in early April, because a fiscal fight between him and Congress delayed final action into January. Presidents are supposed to submit budgets in early February, but are often late.
In March, Congress begins its own budget-writing process, taking some of a president’s proposals into consideration and ignoring many of them, regardless of party.
