Office of Travel and Tourism
Description
Affiliated Characters
Event Involvements
Events with structured involvement data
The Office of Management and Budget is invoked as the fiscal validator — staff acknowledge the need to check OMB for official scoring of the proposed tuition deduction and offsets before public commitment.
Mentioned indirectly as the agency whose buy-in or scoring is necessary for credible cost estimates.
Holds technical authority over budget scoring; can validate or undercut the political narrative depending on its numbers.
OMB's eventual scoring will determine whether the tuition proposal appears fiscally responsible or politically risky.
Not shown; treated as a gatekeeper for credible fiscal claims.
The Office of Management and Budget's determination of revenue neutrality is cited as critical technical clearance, shaping the meeting's confidence that the plan is defensible before the public.
Referenced through Leo's confirmations.
Holds budgetary authority that constrains political promises and legitimizes rollout decisions.
OMB's clearance reduces the political risk of being attacked on fiscal grounds and forces the team to focus on messaging rather than technical defense.
Implicitly procedural and apolitical; not contested in this scene.
The Office of Management and Budget is cited for declaring the tax plan revenue-neutral, serving as a budgetary gatekeeper whose endorsement quiets fiscal objections and hastens political scheduling.
Via Leo's report of OMB's assessment.
Gatekeeper: OMB's approval limits political exposure to budget criticisms and enables executive action.
OMB's clearance reduces procedural obstacles and frames the tax plan as responsibly designed.
No internal conflict shown; OMB's role is as a confirming authority.
The Office of Management and Budget's finding of revenue neutrality is cited as necessary validation for the tax plan, providing the Administration cover to begin outreach and messaging planning.
Via Leo's reporting of OMB clearance.
Serves as a gatekeeper — its validation empowers the White House to publicize the plan.
OMB clearance reduces political risk of the tax plan rollout by anchoring claims in institutional analysis.
Not shown; acts as a neutral technical arbiter.
OMB's new poverty model—adding four million poor—detonates in Sam-Josh talk; Bernice positioned as gatekeeper for delay, framing fiscal realism against electoral peril in policy pivot.
Via Bernice Collette and recommended model
Technocratic force challenging White House optics
Inflames poverty discourse pre-reelection
OMB's new poverty model—jacking thresholds and adding four million poor—ignites Sam's plea for Bernice delay, clashing idealism against re-election math in Josh's expert retort, amplifying electoral volcano.
Through recommended policy shift and Bernice proxy
Challenges White House with unwelcome stats
Threatens Bartlet's compassionate image
Toby unveils OMB's impending new poverty definitions—threshold hike swelling poor ranks by millions—framed as Bartlet's choice for 'more or fewer poor people,' slyly eliciting 'fewer' to bind administration politically amid holiday chaos.
Via Toby's verbal briefing on upcoming metrics
Exerts technocratic pressure on presidential policy via data redefinition
Threatens re-election optics by inflating poverty numbers sans campaign buffer
OMB's new poverty definitions loom as Toby's climactic reveal, framed provocatively as inflating poor numbers by raising thresholds to $22K, thrusting administrative metrics into Oval spotlight and catalyzing subplot escalation amid re-election polls and holiday chaos.
Via Toby's direct invocation and critical framing of definitions
Challenges presidential agenda with bureaucratic redefinition authority
Exposes administration to 4 million more 'poor' amid vulnerability
OMB detonates as Toby's revelation's core—their impending recommendation for revised poverty calculation, hiking threshold $2,000 to $22,000 annually and inflating poor ranks by 4 million sans campaign cushion—igniting Bruno's cynical deflection and the duo's principled-pragmatic rift at re-election's razor edge.
Directly invoked in Toby's urgent dialogue as policy originator
Wields bureaucratic authority via stats that imperil White House optics, challenged by staff intervention
Amplifies administration vulnerability to poverty narrative amid polling perils
OMB is invoked as the source of a perfunctory, valueless report on expanding unfunded mandates, relayed via Leo's Office; it embodies federal bureaucratic bloat, provoking Josh's cynicism and contrasting the scene's pivot to weightier ethical debates on treaties and morality.
Through anticipated institutional output (the quick report)
Imposing meaningless procedural burdens on White House staff
Exposes tension between Oval ideals and federal machinations
Invoked via Donna's delivery of its planned 'quick report' on expanding unfunded mandates—a hollow bureaucratic exercise dismissed as meaningless by Josh—serving as narrative foil to ignite the prostitution debate, underscoring White House tedium amid high-stakes moral policy tempests like Qumar and UN treaties.
Via relayed administrative announcement from Leo's office through Donna
Exerts procedural oversight on White House operations, met with sarcastic staff resistance
Highlights clash between Oval policy ambitions and grinding federal bureaucracy
Invoked by Alan as backer of aggressive tourism strategies like print ads for foliage tours and separate snowmobiling campaigns, framing the pitch's revenue rationale that Bartlet mocks, highlighting bureaucratic earnestness clashing with gubernatorial intellect.
Through aides Allen and Alan presenting strategies
Subordinate to governor's authority, pitch dismantled
Exposes state agency's creative but flawed economic pitches
The Office of Travel and Tourism is actively represented through Allen and Alan's pitch of print ads for foliage tours, snowmobiling campaigns, and the 'New Hampshire. It's what's new!' slogan, setting the stage for dismissal and ironic repurposing by Leo's campaign napkin.
Through junior staff Allen and Alan presenting strategies
Subordinate to governor's authority, pitch rejected outright
Highlights state-level promotional efforts overshadowed by national ambition
OMB is invoked by Leo as a key adversary in the imminent budget meeting, pushing to excise the child poverty fund from the State of the Union—symbolizing bureaucratic fiscal hawks clashing with Bartlet's social vision, heightening the diversion from scandal.
Referenced institutionally via Leo's briefing dialogue
Advisory enforcers wielding veto-like influence over presidential priorities
Exposes tension between Oval idealism and federal pragmatism
OMB positioned by Bartlet as scoring enforcer requiring offsets nowhere in sight, pivotal veto in fiscal reality check.
Invoked as budgetary arbiter
Fiscal watchdog overriding Oval ambitions
Embodies congressional fiscal restraints on executive vision
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is explicitly invoked by Bartlet as the instrument that can execute around‑the‑clock budget changes; the President expects OMB to absorb the deadline pressure and produce offsets.
Mentioned as an available institutional resource whose staff will perform technical budget scoring and reallocation.
Acts as a constrained but necessary executor of the President's directive, holding technical authority to rework numbers but dependent on White House political direction.
Demonstrates how executive technical organs translate political priorities into implementable budgets, and how their capacity can be leveraged during holidays.
Implied tension between resource constraints (holiday staffing) and the expectation of emergency responsiveness.
The Office of Management and Budget is named as the key implementation partner capable of executing an around‑the‑clock budget rewrite. Bartlet assumes OMB 'works for us,' making it the operational instrument to score costs, find offsets, and push printing deadlines.
Represented implicitly by Bartlet's rhetorical appeal to its capacity and Josh's acceptance of its temporary availability.
OMB holds technical control over budget scoring and offsets but is positioned as subordinate to a presidential directive for rapid action.
The event foregrounds OMB's role as the bottleneck and facilitator of executive priorities, highlighting tensions between technical process and political urgency.
Implied strain on OMB staff expected to work holiday hours and reconcile revenue neutrality/offsets quickly.
The Office of Management and Budget appears as the source of the contested fiscal idea—a dedicated tax floated to fund the infant‑mortality/offset question. OMB's technical judgment and proposed tradeoffs create the moral and political friction at the center of the policy exchange.
Via technical proposal and fiscal analysis communicated to policy staff (discussed by Josh and Donna).
Exerts procedural authority over budgetary feasibility; constrains political actors by defining possible offsets.
Forces political actors to accept technical constraints, shaping which humanitarian actions are politically and fiscally feasible.
Tension between technical rigor and political appetite—OMB's conservative scoring collides with urgent humanitarian claims.
The Office of Management and Budget functions as the procedural brake on the domestic tax‑plan rollout: its request for additional hours on revenue scoring delays the policy timetable and fuels presidential irritation.
Through staff requests for more time and formal scoring processes (as referenced).
Technocratic gatekeeper with the ability to delay political rollouts; exerts bureaucratic constraint on the President's timetable.
Illustrates how bureaucratic process can shape political opportunities and compress timelines, producing friction within the executive branch.
Tension between political urgency and analytic thoroughness (implied).
The Office of Management and Budget appears as the procedural bottleneck delaying the domestic tax plan rollout—its request for more hours provides the comic/irritant background to the scene before the diplomatic rupture.
Via Leo's report that OMB wants additional time for revenue calculations; functioning as an administrative voice.
Holds technical veto power over policy rollouts; constrains political timelines without being a political actor itself.
Illustrates how administrative processes can shape political messaging and timing, sometimes frustrating political actors.
Tension between technical rigor and political urgency; staffing and deadline pressures (implied).
The OMB is referenced earlier in the scene as delaying revenue scoring for the President's tax plan; its mention frames the domestic policy friction that Bartlet sets aside to confront the humanitarian crisis.
Through Leo's scheduling notes and reference to required additional hours for revenue calculations.
A bureaucratic constraint on the White House's domestic rollout, exerting procedural friction.
Demonstrates how administrative processes can delay political initiatives and shape presidential attention.
Implied tension between policy urgency and technical process; OMB seeking more time.
The Office of Management and Budget is the institutional backdrop for the technical budget discussion — its aides supply figures, precedent, and the procedural framing (80/70 anchor). The organization is the technical arbiter whose numbers legitimize political choices.
Via the presence and input of OMB aides supplying precise figures and clarifying which line items (PSSF grants) are under discussion.
Technically authoritative on scoring and precedent but operationally subordinate to political direction from White House staff like Josh.
Shows how technical budget offices enable political trades; their numbers are leveraged to make ethically fraught decisions appear administratively legitimate.
Operating tension between adherence to technical accuracy and the need to craft politically useful frames at the direction of senior political staff.
OMB is invoked by Leo as the immediate place to check what the administration can 'give' the congressman — both a practical repository of fiscal authority and a gatekeeper for any budgetary concessions tied to a legislative negotiation.
Via an instruction to 'Talk to OMB' — represented by staff contact rather than a public spokesman.
OMB is a technical authority that can enable or constrain political deals through numbers and budgetary rules; it exerts institutional power over what the administration can offer.
Reference to OMB underscores how political bargaining is tethered to fiscal reality; their involvement channels political pressure into administrable options and reveals the technical limits of executive response.
Implied urgency and willingness to wake staff suggests OMB will be pulled into emergency calculations outside normal hours.
The Office of Management and Budget is invoked as the bureaucratic tool Leo orders staff to consult—its analyses and fiscal levers are necessary to craft a tangible concession that could satisfy congressional demands without capitulating politically.
Manifested via an instruction to 'Talk to OMB'—the organization functions through staff doing immediate cost and offset calculations.
Operationally powerful in policy implementation—able to shape what the White House can offer by identifying fiscal constraints and trade-offs.
Positions the bureaucracy as the mediator between political demands and feasible executive responses, highlighting how policy outcomes depend on administrative capacity and fiscal judgment.
Implicit urgency—staff may need to be awakened and mobilized; chain-of-command and quick-turn analyses are required.
The Office of Management and Budget is referenced as the technical gatekeeper for budgetary feasibility; Leo asks whether OMB had anything, signaling that fiscal analysis is necessary to support any deal that trades study for funding.
Via Leo's query about OMB and the expectation that OMB will provide budget analysis and offsets if needed.
Acts as a constraints-enforcer — the institutional check that can enable or block the political maneuver by determining fiscal plausibility.
OMB's role turns political theater into actionable policy only if fiscal cover exists; their technical voice can legitimise or undercut the 'study' gambit.
Functions procedurally and technically, separate from political bargaining; staff must wake or consult OMB late to produce necessary analysis.
The Office of Management and Budget is mentioned earlier in passing as part of routine policy questioning; while not central to the NASA allegation, its invocation helps establish the gaggle's normal policy concerns versus this emergent scientific scandal.
Referenced indirectly via reporter questioning rather than present through personnel.
As a policy shop, OMB holds influence over budgetary implications of policy but is peripheral to scientific-release disputes.
Its mention highlights the breadth of the gaggle's concerns and how administrative organs are routinely queried, though it plays no direct role in the Mars allegation.
Not engaged; functions as background administrative reference.
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