This is just over an hour. [background noises] [background noises] we have cspan here so we all have to behave. Good morning Washington Bureau chief of the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is Shalonda Young director of the White House Office of management and budget. This is her first appearance at a monitor breakfast so welcome. Director young hills from louisiana urges degrees for Loyola University in new orleans and she worked on the hill for years pierced most recently as a staff staff director and House Appropriations. In 22 atd once she became acting omb director a year later it was confirmed easily by the senate including 14 republican votes. I picked up one. [laughter] way to go. In this day and age that is something for director young was a key negotiate of the debt ceiling talks last year. We will be interested in getting her take of all the government funding issues now urgently on the table. So again welcome. Now for the ground rules. We are on the record here, please note live blogging or tweeting in short no filing of any kind while the breakfast is underway. Once the sessionon ends there is no embargo. We will email pictures and a rough transcript from this breakfast to all recorders here shortly after the breakfast ends. As you know, if youd like to ask a question send a signal i will pop call on this many of you as time permits. Since we have a pretty good group here maybe keep it to a question. Now director young if youd liky to make brief opening remarks. Five minutes or so, the floor is yours. Op i bluff the staff long enough i still know it brief is. I told some of you at the table on that id ran out of clean laundry but i promise you have enough built up for eight very busy january and february. I have seen a few of these rodeos before. It is tight just to say the least from a mechanical standpoint how quickly appropriators right to finish these first four bills by generate 19th. Youve all seen that trip on the border thinking House Republicans some of the things that came out of that. The things about the past they are headed toward in 14 days. This was all preventable we did the debt ceiling deal. The debt ceiling could have been lifted so now it was weapon icee during the obama presidency. That is why the president agreed to sit down and talk about topline budget numbers. Was that necessary to lift the debt . No. Maybe wed get an orderly approach appropriation process out of it. Turns out we have a new speaker since then. And we have to remind people the budget agreement was not a handshake it was a vote of congress. It is not optional. They have to keep their word. And they have to live by the numbers that were agreed to buy at 70 of the House Republican caucus voted for the debt deal. 76 of House Democrats voted for that deal. That is the only way to get appropriation bills done without the threat of shutdown. Im pretty optimistic. Dont mark me down as optimistic this morning especially after some of the remarks ive seen over the last couple of days. In that conference is nothing shut down. So brief enough. I think im under five minutes for. Thank you so much. You might have seen, speaker johnson of Communications Releases memo this morning. Is refuting the white house saying their fiscal 24 Homeland Security appropriations bill increase funding for the board and did not cut it. He said the white house money for the borders smoke and mirrors so what is your response . More money with the fennel coming across the border. Ive been to a few in my day on my day on the hill it was bipartisan to what to do more. The president s request asked for more of that equipment more money with more money for agents, more money for asylum officers. I get it. You and have boat you want to fix it . We want to fix it. No, we do not want people waiting five or six years before they get called in and have their case adjudicated. Not only is that bad for our border policy but its bad for those families to come, get adjusted in this country and the rymeat snatched away from their communities. Some children its the only communities theyve ever known. We have to do something to fix it. You cannot think that people should not immigrate to this country and want to fix this process if you dont have that belief we should have a functioning immigration process you say no to all of this. And you are starting to hear the rhetoric close the border. What does that mean . What is that mean beth immigration policy not just the meborder policy . We know that makes the system work better. Now you are saying so willingness to have an immigration system that works to get people legally through the system. That is concerning. That does not leave a lot of room when there is a fundamental disagreement of how this countrys values are set to find a sub agreement with the problem you all see. There is just a fundamental difference in value frankly that is stopping this. And then we are going to argue about numbers. They numbers do not live forever some republicans said they want to cut non discretionary guess whats in there . It is Homeland Security. When you cut the top lines you have a House Appropriations bill that makes topline cuts of 20 and 30 , Homeland Security is a part of that. We use the words like non discretionary because most americans do not know what is in that. That is Homeland Security that is veterans, that is childcare, that is headstart. That is nih. What would be cut back . That is not the problem of the deficit. When they want to talk about trump tax cuts im happy to have thatat conversation. We did not get into this problem because we funded Biomedical Research or Border Patrols. So that is my answer to that. I would be worried too if i put out a dhs bill and had my members vote for that ill be trying to correct the record to break works okay just one warm Senior Sports speaker johnsons isdirect negotiation with the white house. With regard to . Quick or to Border Security immigration policy. Are you going to jump in and get involved in this . The last i checked congressional leaders are having talks to have been talks for weeks with senator murphy, senator lightfoot. I know where the speakers a suite is, right next to the senate. Its a long trip down to the white house to do something that can be done right next door. The white house has been involved. There is ae Group Meeting about these very important things. He is a fellow im going to use a terrible thought here. But that is not serious. There are talks going on no ones going to stop the speaker if you want some involvement they cannot be involved electric works cooks use of the north part of the state. [laughter] consumed a school in baton rouge at lsu my mothers and l as you grab it so i will give him that. He has visited down south. As a great was a good partner and i have known scalise and his team for years. Whatever it takes there is no acknowledgment that talks are happening the pittsburgh post set the outer table. Thank you for coming. I know were tongue but the shutdown which also preparing the budget for 2425 for. Do not remind me. Is just concerned given the large anniversary of generally six or look at the budget. Are you talk about new security steps funding you think youre going to need for the postelection and certification next year . There is always this time of year. Even a last year we started funding leading up to then normal planning around inauguration its normal course of action for work closely with secret service to make sure they have what they need and make sure we are budgeting. Ive been that for the last 20 years in some way. Theres nothing different in that landscape. As they tell us what they need and we do notot analyze that we ask for what they tell us to ask for for themselves. So nothing different and out of bounds of tradition are we thinking about and how we plan for secret services needs. How we plan for the needs of the capitol region. We have put forward in our budget the last three p cycles this is been the forefront of american politics and russias behavior in 2016. We continue to look for bipartisan audience with regard to Election Security print i wish it was bipartisan and it used to be. You will probably remember when election r commission was set up that was after hanging chads. H things have changed but then we said the answer to all of that is electronics. Now we realize we are vulnerable with all electronics. Assistance to states andsi localities make sure the equipment is secure. We continue to ask for that. Unfortunately dont seem to be interested in our Election Security request. But its a good thing to do. To your right. Yes, madam director. You are certainly a player and all things economic and the administration. Coming up we are told in fiscal year 2024 there will be a soft landing is there anything you see, any Economic Indicators from your perspective that could interrupt the soft landing . Truly just a big so unexpected that are bad for the economy. Months and months are repeats every pieceof data, the economi mike no one has ever said we are on the right path about the cabbie out there could be bumps in the road. Who even, under the word supply chain before covid . The red sea attack, shipping. All of these things the geopolitical space certainly have a chance and opportunity to raise prices on the american consumer. Who knew what happened to the gas prices are food baskets i dont think people realize how much food ukraine produced until russia invaded ukraine. So all of these things we are always on alert we are on a good path to the soft landing that most economists outside of government did not think was possible its good to see them finally come around. Golden zachs was the outlier who saw how we could live the soft landing and others have now appreciated we are on that path. But i worry about the geopolitical space we live in in this world. Some actors in the energy space could cause what they could pay because of it. Okay from the boston globe. Its funny we are back to back. Sort of piggybacking on that more broadly what is the mood like as you continue to get these good indicators with a better than expected job numbers today. And whatnd is the economic risk, coming back to our previous conversation if there is a dish shut down. Im glad you. Ve im not talking about them for myself. But wow. Job numbers have been consistently robust. Inflation has moderated in a way even the fed recognizes and you have seen their response to good numbers. Doesnt mean were done with interest rake heights but the federal make those determinations. So this hat trick of a soft landing again the geopolitical space makes me personally nervous. But the indicators we see every month or on the right path we have seen some months where inflation did not move. We always went to see a downward trend. The trend line is very positive from the Economic Team we are cautiously optimistic. We have lunch every friday so later today and i would say cautiously optimistic but always looking forward to the next thing around the corner and trying to get ahead ofto it. From an economic standpoint . Most economists will tell you a shutdown as may be. 01 on gdp that typically the economy picks up in thehe next quarter. Soon a Macro Economic standpoint it is certainly not even in the stratosphere of debtt limits. And how catastrophic that would have been. The one caveat to that statement is governance. We have seen financial institutions, those responsible for credit ratings. Look at that very closely in regard to the knights credit worthiness. It is concerning that we continue to have a by political system that does not show that it works in a smooth way. So my fear is these governance issues these potential shutdowns and the shutdowns themselves going up to the brink of debt limits that will continue to play heavily in the minds of our credit agencies as a look at the knights credit worthiness. Okay eric from bloomberg. Low pessimistic or optimistic are you predicting a shutdown this month . As far as that is concerned. Theres also some reporting that democrats are willing to reopen and maybe accelerates the cuts we didnt say that. We didnt say that this week. There are a growing number of House Republicans with this mindset. I would not say pessimistic but i am not optimistic. I started this conversation with earlier this week and the border trip last we meet with more concerns about where they are headed. This is not some the flame throwers you typically hear this from her they were not on the border trip. This is not a small french number of House Republicans. I am going to take them at their word on this one. Try our best to work with those who know this is a bad road for our country and soup but i find about coalition of the willing to do the right thing. I will start with these side deal was a part of the budget deal. Democrats voted in mass for this deal. Because nondefensive discretionary was left relatively flat. That includes the things that are unlocked and the appropriations process. The leaders are talking to try get there propria is working, but from my perspective i hate we use this terms side deal. This was a part of the budget deal. We have to make sure nondefense discretionary remains at 772. Which is a relatively flat level to current spending. Without that im not quite sure how they are going to get there. I will not get ahead of what they are discussing. But from my standpoint it is incredibly important to makere sure we do say at the levels we agreed too and budget deal. James with the financial times. There was a report in the New York Times this morning suggesting the administration was open to allowing mass importation of drugs from canada. Can you confirmed that is a shift in how much of a game changer in terms of lowering healthcare costs . On this when i typically do not does say this but not my wheelhouse. I am hopefully smart enough to know when to say i am not the becks spokesperson for the administration in regard to importation of drugs from canada so i will let others speak to the details in what they see from healthcare cost perspective. Okay. Are you aiden . Aiden quigley. Thanks for coming. I have a followup about the possibility. If you were to accelerate the irs decision what effect would that have . On the process . You know as part of the budget deal we agreed to allow the appropriators to resend 20 billion in irs dividing for our purview 20 billion over two or one year is 20 billion. Weve already worked with the irs to make sure that does not impact their current efforts. And we feel confident they could continue to goo after high incoe tax cheats with a 20 billiondollar reduction to the 78 billion they received in the inflation reduction act. Hi. First on ukraine [indiscernible] how much longer you can make a Silver Service payment without any additional aid . Obviously that is a big part of the aid package from the eu and washington. Dir. Young i do not have the exact figure. Clearly we are worried about this. The good news is we provide a smaller portion of direct budget support, which goes to the world bank that as you pointed it is used to make sure they continue to function. It provides 60 to 70 and when it comes too military equipment, back switches so there is not an immediate problem but clearly a deficit of a billing dollars a month will start having an impact. What we get back to you pacifics and some ownership of the answer and i want to be precise because this is clearly are talking about will let us do smooth Due Diligence and followup. The president hinted at an alternate Revenue Source for ukraine. It is that what will happen if congress does not approve additional funding for ukraine . There is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that. What was the president talking about, and are there alternate sources beyond congressional appropriations . Dir. Young i came from the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations CommitteeCongress Must provide additional funding if we are to keep the level of support. Yes, dod has some Authority Like an authority we are using now, that will not get equipment into ukraine. We clearly cannot continue to provide some of the support from our dod personnel and device and counsel, but i think ukraine will tell you they need the large tranches of equipment to continue to flow into ammunition. That comes through president ial Drawdown Authority. We have additional president ial Drawdown Authority, but we have made the decision that without money that impacts our own readiness, so there is pda left, but given this complicated world i have talked about a few times now, we are just left with no choice to leave that on the table, because we do not have money to backfill our own equipment, and that is a Risky Business to send equipment in which congress has not provided money to backfill, and we made the tough decision to not use all of our pda, because we do not have the money to replace it. [indiscernible] dir. Young i know there are bills moving through congress. Others have a bill. We are interested in talking to them about it. We are interested in earlier supplementals congress did not take us up on, but the timeframe of seizing assets, sending that money to kyiv is not an immediate thing. That does not resolve the need to provide funding now. That is a future benefit to kyiv we should look at and take seriously. Ok, are you jacob . From the Washington Post . That is me. [laughter] the question again a