The White House threatened to veto a Senate bill providing funding for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies, arguing that the bill inadequately funds preparation for the 2020 census and hiring for agents overseeing the nation’s gun laws while underfunding NASA’s Space Launch System rocket.
The Office of Management and Budget released a statement Tuesday praising the bill’s investments in the FBI and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including funding for the construction of a new FBI headquarters facility and for the next generation of NOAA’s polar orbiting satellites.
But the OMB took issue with what it said was the bill’s “inadequate” funding of “research, testing and implementation activity” for the 2020 Decennial Census, arguing that it the program needs $5 billion more than the measure provides.
In addition, the bill fails to provide what the administration argued was necessary funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to hire the requested 200 additional agents and investigators to help enforce existing gun laws and “keep guns out of the wrong hands,” a criticism the White House has amplified this week in the wake of the deadly Orlando terrorist attack.
The administration is also “deeply concerned” that the bill adds more than $1 billion more than President Obama requested for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule while underfunding other “key” NASA programs.
The OMB said that approach “would result in an unbalanced exploration program that is unable to achieve shared exploration goals.”
