Several alarmed White House career budget staffers alerted House appropriators when the Office of Management and Budget last summer placed a political appointee in charge of a hold on $400 million in foreign assistance to Ukraine
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Those OMB civil servants questioned a move to put Trump administration political hire Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs, in control of the freeze, a Democratic aide told POLITICO. But White House budget officials contend there was nothing unusual or improper about shifting the responsibility into the hands of Duffey, and that the decision had nothing to do with the career staff concerns that the hold was not legal.
OMB’s decision to delegate authority to Duffey, former executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, despite career staff's objections proved so concerning that House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey and House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth broached the subject in a Sept. 27 letter to the agency.
In their letter, the Democrats questioned the agency’s “unusual and seemingly unprecedented step” to delegate authority to a political appointee, “in lieu of career civil servants who have historically been the designated officials responsible for overseeing and executing these technical budget documents.”
But it’s not unusual for political appointees to be involved in the process, according to a senior administration official, who contended that Duffey’s involvement wasn’t triggered by legal concerns raised by career staff. The acting head of OMB can delegate authority to anyone within the agency on such issues, the official said.
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