US Senate confirms Trump's pick for White House budget director

U.S. Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The 51-49 vote on Thursday was largely along party lines, with all Senate Democrats voting against the confirmation.

After swearing in office, one of the top tasks for Mulvaney is to work out government funding plan for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year and roll out a budget plan for fiscal 2018.

U.S. federal governments are funded under a temporary spending law which will expire on April 28. The White House and the Congress need to introduce a new spending bill to fund the government operations through the rest of the fiscal 2017 which ends on September 30 this year.

Mulvaney has been aggressively advocating sharp government spending cuts and was among of the Republican group that tried to defund Obamacare that resulted in temporary government shutdown in 2013.

The OMB chief is responsible for administering the federal budget and measuring the performance of federal agencies.

In his confirmation hearing, Mulvaney told senators that he would recommend President Trump to cut government spendings including social programs to fund the infrastructure spending.

source: Xinhua