Bureau of the Budget

As we read at the end of Chapter 34, "American Life in the Roaring Twenties", the Bureau of the Budget was created in 1921 by the Republican Congress and President Harding, which passed the Budget and Accounting Act. It's purpose was to help the President with his submission of an annual budget to Congress in order to prevent extravagant expenses. This act was the first formal legislation that placed restrictions on how the government could spend its money. In 1971, the Bureau of the Budget became the Office of Management and Budget, the framework of our modern federal budget system.

Additionally, some members of Congress in 1974 had issues with their current budgetary system in place. Due to President Nixon's threat of impoundment, a process of withholding Congressional appropriations that did not agree with his own policies, leading to the beginning of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This act strengthened Congressional oversight of the budget because it enabled a way for Congress to create and enforce its own budgetary ideas without necessity of the President. The House and Senate Budget Committees were also created for oversight of the budget process and the Congressional Budget Office was created to inform Congress and its committees with information regarding current economic issues. The Congressional Budget Office has had nine Directors since it's founding in February of 1975.

By the time the Bureau of the Budget was in place and functioning, President Coolidge was in office and was thus the first President to have control over the budget. With appropriation requests and expenditures coming in from executive agencies, Coolidge was the one controlling the budget and thus had the ability to confirm or deny the requests. With this ability, this legislation just provided for a further expansion of presidential power during the 20th century that helped coordinate the modern system. Today, the Office of Management and Budget produces the President's Budget and measures the quality of various programs, policies, and procedures to verify them with the president's policies and make sure they line up.

The current staff of the Office of Management and Budget

Source:
https://www.cbo.gov/about/history
http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/amrlhtml/dtbudact.html
http://www.worldhistory.biz/modern-history/80988-budget-and-accounting-act-1921.html