OMB chief touts ‘compromise’ $1.1T spending deal

The chief of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Wednesday applauded the $1.1 trillion spending package approved by Congress and President Obama, but knocked its “ideological and special interest” riders.

In a blog post, OMB Director Shaun Donovan described the legislation as a “compromise” in which “no one got everything they wanted.”

Donovan repeated the administration’s opposition to the rider that repeals a portion of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, which he said could hurt taxpayers. The provision will now allow banks to engage directly in derivatives trading. He also slammed the bill’s amendment that will dramatically loosen limits on campaign donations.

Despite those riders, Obama signed the package into law late Tuesday after Congress passed the measure last week.

{mosads}The “cromnibus” spending package includes 11 appropriations bills that fund most of the government through Sept. 30 and a continuing resolution (CR) that only funds the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 27.

GOP leaders chose to only fund the department for a short period to give next year’s Republican majority an opportunity to try to pick apart Obama’s recent immigration orders. Donovan described that decision as “shortsighted.”

“Short-term continuing resolution funding measures are disruptive, create uncertainty, and impede efficient resource planning and execution,” he wrote. 

Besides the bill’s contentious pieces, Donovan outlined a number of other areas that the administration considers a success. 

The bill, for example, doesn’t roll back the cores of Obama’s proposed climate change rules on clean power and water, he said. It also allows the administration to move forward on the implementation of ObamaCare, though it doesn’t provide any new funding for the healthcare law. 

Donovan applauded Congress for appropriating most of the president’s emergency requests: $5 billion to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and $5.4 billion to combat Ebola.

Government agencies that regulate the financial industry will also receive more funding for the current fiscal year, said Donovan, who noted the bill doesn’t undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as some Republicans had proposed.