Senate Confirms Trump's Budget Nominee Mulvaney in a Close Vote
- McCain votes no because of next OMB chief’s military stance
- Mulvaney favors less spending on social programs, entitlements
Representative Mick Mulvaney is sworn in during a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24.
Photographer: Aaron P. Bernstein/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Mick Mulvaney, who has focused his Washington career on driving down federal spending -- even at the risk of shutting down the government and defaulting on the debt -- won confirmation Thursday as President Donald Trump’s budget chief.
The Senate’s 51-49 vote to put the South Carolina congressman in charge of the Office of Management and Budget sends Mulvaney into the center of all federal spending decisions. Among them: funding the government for the rest of fiscal 2017, because the current spending law runs only through April 28.