Thomas Bertram "Bert" Lance (June 3, 1931 – August 15, 2013) was an American businessman who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Lance introduced himself to Jimmy Carter at the 1966 annual meeting of the Coosa Valley Area Planning and Development Commission.

[4] Carter did not qualify for the general election, but after running again and winning in 1970, he invited Lance to become State Highway Director.

[4] Lance ran to succeed Carter in 1974 but lost a bid for the Democratic nomination, finishing third in the first primary behind Lester Maddox and the eventual winner, George Busbee.

After Carter's victory over President Gerald Ford, Lance was named Director of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB).

Within six months, questions were raised by the press and Congress about mismanagement and corruption when Lance was chairman of the board of Calhoun First National Bank of Georgia.

William Safire's article written during this time, Carter's Broken Lance, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1978.

The attempt failed, but three years later, BCCI secretly acquired the bank and renamed it First American Bankshares by using 15 Arab investors as nominees.

[20] In a Season 5 episode of Good Times (1977), JJ references Bert Lance while offering to make out a check for the family budget, knowing they have no money.

[21] In "Making Out", a 1979 episode of the sitcom What's Happening!, Rerun (played by Fred Berry) confuses Bert Lance with Cyrus Vance while trying to impress a date who is a political science major.