Who submits the budget in an election year with a "lame duck" president?
At the time of a presidential transition, one question
commonly asked is whether the outgoing or incoming President submits the budget for the upcoming
fiscal year.
Under past practices, outgoing Presidents in transition years submitted a budget to Congress
just prior to leaving office and incoming Presidents usually revised them. Six incoming presidents
-- Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan -- revised their predecessor's budget
shortly after taking office, while only two Presidents during this period, Johnson and George H. W.
Bush, chose not to do so.
The deadline for submission of the President's budget, which has been changed several times
over the years, was set in 1990 as the first Monday in February. The change made it possible for an
outgoing President to leave the annual budget submission to his successor.
The two outgoing Presidents since the 1990 change -- George H. W. Bush and Clinton --
exercised this option. Accordingly, the budget was submitted by the two incoming Presidents
(Clinton for FY1994 and George W. Bush for FY2002).
The last three incoming Presidents that submitted a budget or revised their predecessor's
budget (Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush) did not submit detailed budget proposals during their
transitions until early April; however, each of them advised Congress regarding the general contours
of their economic and budgetary policies in a special message submitted to Congress in February
concurrently with a presentation made to a joint session of Congress.
President George W. Bush has indicated that he will not submit a budget for FY2010, which
is subject to a deadline of Monday, February 2, 2009. The Office of Management and Budget will
prepare a current services baseline from which the incoming Administration can develop its budget
proposals.
