This past month a few members from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) visited the Aeronautical Center. This is the office that implements the President’s vision across the Executive Branch. Ultimately, they oversee the performance of federal agencies and are responsible for administering their federal budget.

OMB accomplishes their mission through five main functions across executive departments and agencies:

1. Budget development and execution.
2. Management, including oversight of agency performance, procurement, financial management and information technology.
3. Coordinate and review all significant Federal regulations from executive agencies and privacy and information policies while reviewing and assessing information from collection requests.
4. Clearance and coordination of legislative and other materials, including agency testimony, legislative proposals, and other communications with Congress, and coordination of other Presidential actions.
5. Clearance of Presidential Executive Orders and memoranda to agency heads prior to their issuance.

Visiting guests included: David Connolly, OMB Branch Chief, Transportation & GSA; Andrea Petro, OMB Examiner – Operations and Airports Accounts; Carl Barrick, OMB Examiner – F&E and RED Accounts, Joanne Snow, Director of FAA Operating Budgets, ABP-200; Chera Canupp, Manager, FAA Operations Budget Formulation & Execution, ABP-210, and Kathleen Calhoun, Management & Program Analyst, FAA Capital Program Execution Branch, ABP-320. The guests started their day at the Security Command Center with an overview of the Center with Michelle Coppedge, Director of the Aeronautical Center and Carrie Tatyrek, Manager of the AMC Resource Management Section.

The tour took them to Flight Program Operations in Hangar 8 and then to the Thomas P. Stafford Building, where they learned about the FAA Academy, the Tower Simulator System, En Route Training, Lab Expansion, Tech Ops Training, and the Flight Standards Regulatory Standards Training Lab.

After lunch, the next tour stop was the Radar Support Facility to visit NAS Engineering, then the Radar Repair Facility and the FAA’s Logistics Center. Late afternoon was spent with the teams in the Flight Research and Analysis Branch, followed by a short briefing from Aeronautical Center Director Michelle Coppedge about emerging technologies.

The second day of the OMB visit involved tours of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the Civil Aviation Registry, the Enterprise Services Center, and the Thomas Road Warehouse, as well as briefings from Facility Management. The tour helped to visually show actual systems with locations, so when OMB team members are preparing reports and reviewing documents, it gives them an even better understanding of the physical equipment and processes that are being used in our National Airspace System.