From the summer in 1965 through the next spring, I worked as a Budget Examiner in the United States Bureau of the Budget.
It’s now re-named the Office of Management and Budget.
The office was on the first floor of the Executive Office Building, now named after President Dwight G. Eisenhower.
It was a Civil Service position, gained from passing the Management intern Examination.
“Do you think you can work with a Goldwater Republican?” my Division Chief asked my Senior Budget Examiner Roger Adkins.
(Actually, my mother and I were for Bill Scranton; my father had a “AU H20″sticker on his windshield.)
“I can work with anyone,” he replied.
We worked long hours while preparing the budget, which President Lyndon Johnson had decreed would not exceed $500 million.
We knew that supplement appropriations would result in a higher figure, but the Budget Book totaled $495 million, I think.
My agency was the largest independent agency.
My big thrill was after my Senior Budget Examiner made the presentation to BoB Director Charles Schultz, he asked me if I had anything to add.
I piped up that about the line item for Small Business Investment Corporations.
My Division Chief had decided that its appropriation should be increased from $80 million to $100 million.
I told the Director that the money loaned to the SBICs would never be repaid.
They started out at two year loans, then when the deadline for repayment arrived, Congress increased the maturity to five years. At that time, the deadline was ten years.
Schutz decided to include no increase was merited. so I claim to having saves taxpayers $20 million.
In January, we sent the Budget to the printer on Friday.
When I came in on Monday there was absolutely nothing to do.
“Go through the filed,” Adkins suggested.
I would have one dot point had I been asked to justified my position:
- Found the 1964 Democratic Party Platform Plank for Small Business.
In our orientation, we were told that Johnson was the first President to make use of the Budget Bureau outside of budget preparation.
Political use of Civil Servants in the Budget Bureau was apparently not beyond Johnson’s people.
I left in the spring of 1966 to run for McHenry County Treasurer.
Six years later I was in Washington and walked into the Executive Office Building to visit Roger Adkins.
The guard told me that the Budget Bureau has been moved a block away to a private building.
When I walked in, there was no longer a Federal employee checking IDs.
It was private security for the agency in which everyone had Top Secret classifications.
Now, the Executive Office Building is filled with political appointees.
