This week, the Trump Administration presented Congress with a situation it has not faced since the federal government went to a unified budget system in 1921.

The annual spending requests for all federal agencies have been delivered, in the form of the Budget Appendix from the Office of Management and Budget and more detailed Congressional Justifications from each agency (USDOT is here).

But that request only covers the annual appropriations bills, and only spending that will be completed by September 30, 2026. All permanent and mandatory spending, and all taxes and other receipts, are being hidden by the Administration, as are all of the estimated spending and revenue and debt that will take place after 2026. It’s as if the upcoming decade does not exist.

At a contentious budget hearing yesterday, OMB Director Russ Vought told House appropriators that this was all they were going to get, for the time being. It is possible that, if Congress passes some version of the big budget reconciliation bill by late summer, OMB might release the rest of the budget after the estimated effects of reconciliation have been incorporated.

It is extra frustrating because they admit they have updated projections of future spending and revenues, but refuse to share. For example, three months ago, the March 2025 Treasury Bulletin projected $146 billion in Highway Trust Fund revenues over four years (2026-2029), based on “FY 2025 Midsession Review projections.”

The new June 2025 Treasury Bulletin projects $156 billion in Highway Trust Fund revenues over 2027-2030 based on “FY 2026 President’s Budget projections.” But the Analytical Perspectives volume of the Budget, which has a chapter devoted to trust fund projections, is absent this year.

The “AP” volume also has an annual analysis, published every year since the Eisenhower Administration, aggregating total federal capital investment across the whole government, in real and nominal dollars. A very useful thing to have, but apparently we aren’t getting it this year, at least not in time to make decisions using the data.

Eight years ago, President Trump delivered his entire budget on May 23, 2017, including the basic overview document with the traditional ten-year summary tables, the AP and all its supporting documents including the all-important “Federal Budget by Agency and Account” table, and the incredibly useful Historical Tables.

This year, we get none of that.