Senator Lamar Alexander on Thursday released the following statement on his vote to confirm Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
"As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Mulvaney will be at the center of discussions on federal spending and regulations. I look forward to working with Mr. Mulvaney to reduce wasteful spending and burdensome regulations and address mandatory spending, which he recognizes is the real driver of our country's growing federal debt.
“In my view, out of control mandatory spending must be addressed to solve our nation’s fiscal problems. Discretionary spending– which funds our national defense, national laboratories like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, national parks like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the National Institutes of Health – has been relatively flat for the last eight years and will be for the next several years, and it is not the source of our country’s growing federal debt.”
Senator Bob Corker said, after voting for Congressman Mulvaney, “Director Mulvaney understands that the inability to get our fiscal house in order is one of the greatest threats to our nation, and I am glad he will be serving our country in this capacity. The U.S. is over $20 trillion in debt, and massive annual deficits are projected for years to come unless we drastically change spending habits in Washington. I have spoken with Director Mulvaney about the need for the Trump administration to put forward fiscally responsible budgets, and I will continue to push for reforms of our broken federal budget process.”