After months of delay the FY18 budget arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where Democrats as well as some prominent Republicans immediately declared it dead on arrival.  As with all budgets, it is a political document with political implications.

Many had hoped the delay in forwarding the budget would allow for Trump administration priorities to be more clearly sorted out and funded.  That is not the case. In the weeks immediately leading up to the public unveiling, there had been frenzied back-and-forth exchanges between OMB and various federal agencies.

Unfortunately, the result appears to be a budget document rife with errors and inconsistencies. Further, several of the attempts to fund or de-fund policies in the budget appear sure to cause politically charged debate throughout the summer.

Congressional appropriations committees are well into their hearing schedule and hoping to pick up the legislative process and recover some lost time.  Several subcommittees have chosen to forego the rigid hearing process in order to speed things up. “Markups” of the budget will occur as early as the end of June (about two months later than normal).

Look for the DC summer to be as hot as ever.