The Office of Management and Budget has issued a memo prepping agencies on developing their proposals for the President’s fiscal 2008 budget, urging them to focus on the president’s management agenda — particularly regarding the budget and performance initiative, and to give weight to the program assessment rating tool to identify ways to support the administration’s agenda.
OMB said the President’s 2008 budget would reflect a policy toward economic growth and job creation — which so far has included tax cuts or suspensions — as well as a continuing prioritization for homeland security and defense spending while constraining discretionary spending and mandatory spending growth, and it asked agencies for creative policy proposals to that end.
Agency proposals should be justified by performance evaluation and cost analysis, and reflect their intent to participate in and implement the government-wide lines of business, according to the OMB memo, M-06-14.
It asked agencies to also make sure chief information officers have reviewed budget proposals regarding e-gov and IT before transmitting them to OMB.
The memo said agencies should work with OMB contacts to set funding targets then submit proposals within them, due to OMB by September 11, 2006.
OMB said that like last year, prior-year budget information is due in early December, followed by baseline budget information.
It also said it would serve the President’s priorities best if agencies worked with OMB to develop major legislative or other initiatives throughout the year.
Once again, OMB asked agencies to identify — as in the 2006 and 2007 budget preparation cycles — programs that could be reduced or terminated.
