Budget Director Picks Fight on Spending 'Gimmicks' Called CHIMPs
Government Executive | February 20, 2018
Tacked on to the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget unveiled on Feb. 12 is an unusual “addendum” targeting a decades-old budgeting technique that critics say masks the true amounts in annual spending bills. “The higher discretionary caps reached in [this month’s breakthrough two-year] cap deal provide an opportunity to eliminate longstanding budget gimmicks and to bring more federal spending under these caps,” wrote Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.