Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will issue a directive this week ordering Federal Agencies to get ready for massive budget cuts and layoffs, in keeping with Donald Trump's promise to "drain the swamp." According to a report from Axios, Mulvaney will instruct federal agencies to drastically reduce costs and increase efficiency by any means necessary -- even if that means laying off employees and selling off assets.
Mulvaney was narrowly confirmed as OMB director
Mulvaney's directive will come in the wake of the president's March 13 executive order, in which President Trump called for the OMB to oversee the reorganization of governmental functions and the elimination of unnecessary agencies.
Axios reports that Mulvaney's "guidance letter" will be sent to government agencies around midweek.
Mulvaney, who is a fiscal conservative, was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party-friendly congressional caucus formed in 2015 with the aim of reducing the size of government. He was nominated by Donald Trump as OMB director in December and narrowly confirmed by the Senate in February, by a 51-49 vote.
Who will be cut the deepest?
Trump's first budget calls for massive cuts to several agencies, with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Department of Health and Human Services taking the biggest hits. Under Trump's budget, however, the Department of Defense would see a 10 percent increase in spending.
Trump's budget also proposes the elimination of federal funds for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Contrary to claims made by several prominent liberal news outlets, Trump is not "defunding" Meals on Wheels, the nationwide program designed to feed senior citizens.
The president's budget for fiscal year 2018 also calls for sweeping cuts to the U.S.
Agency for International Development and reduces the size of the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 14 percent.
A recent audit report completed at the direction of HUD secretary Ben Carson, which analyzed HUD's 2015 and 2016 fiscal years, revealed five separate instances of "noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations," and more than $519 billion in accounting errors. The department, whose budget became bloated during the Obama administration, has, thus far, been shown to be one of the most wasteful and inefficient in all of government.
