Washington (CNN) The Education Department failed to include funding for the Special Olympics in its budget proposal this year after it was rebuffed by the White House's budget office, a department official familiar with the process tells CNN.

Department officials tried repeatedly to include the nearly $18 million in funding while still coming in under the White House's budget cap, but officials at the Office of Management and Budget rejected each proposal, according to the official.

Education Department staff were forced this week to watch Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos defend before Congress the unpopular proposed cuts that officials there had largely opposed, only to have the President roll back the cuts two days later. One staffer described the experience to others as the "week from hell."

DeVos faced intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill Tuesday over her proposed budget to the Special Olympics, which provides sports programs for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. DeVos defended the reduction by pointing out the organization receives $100 million from private donors, and later said she was not personally involved in the decision to cut those funds.

"We had to make some difficult decisions in this budget," she told Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, during her Tuesday testimony before the House's subcommittee on education appropriations.

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