WH: Obama to propose Fiscal 2015 budget one month late

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The White House said U.S. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2015 budget proposal will be a month late because of congressional delays in passing a 2014 budget.

In a statement released Thursday, the Office of Management and Budget said the president's proposal, officially due the first Monday in February, will be ready by March 4, The Hill reported.

OMB spokesman Steve Posner said the White House needed to wait for Congress to pass a two-year budget in December and a 2014 spending bill this month.

"Now that Congress has finished its work on this year's appropriations, the administration is able to finalize next year's budget," Posner said. "We are moving to complete the budget as quickly as possible to help Congress return to regular order in the annual budget process."

Obama -- who has delivered a budget proposal on deadline once since taking office in 2009 -- delivered his budget last year on April 8, with the White House blaming the delay on Congress for waiting until January to resolve the fight over avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff, The Hill said.

The 2015 budget limits discretionary funding to $1.014 trillion under terms of the two-year budget deal passed in December.