The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has provided instructions to federal agencies on preparing their budget submissions for Fiscal Year 2019. The guidance document instructs agencies to continue proposals offered in the FY 2018 budget request. Agencies are instructed to put forward no higher than a flat budget request, with some exceptions (up to 5% increase) for initiatives deemed to have a clear federal role. This fall, agencies and OMB will go back and forth to finalize the President’s Budget Request (PBR) for FY 2019. The PBR will be made public in February 2019 and then Congress will largely decide the final numbers for agencies and programs over the course of following several months.