Congressional Budget Office

Type: Government Agency
On the web: http://www.cbo.gov

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) supports the legislative budget process by providing timely, non-partisan analyses, information, and estimates regarding the current budget, the costs of pending legislation, and the general economic outlook. The CBO provides cost estimates for every bill when it is reported by a Congressional committee and can provide estimates, on request, for bills in other stages of the legislative process. The CBO also publishes The Budget and Economic Outlook and An Analysis of the President's Budget to help Congress make informed budgetary decisions. Other products include analytical studies of economic and budgetary issues, analyses of policy issues, and The Monthly Budget Review.

Officers:
Acting Director and Deputy Director: Robert A. Sunshine
CFO: Joseph Evans Jr.
CIO: James Johnson

Congress's growing distrust of the executive branch during the administration of Richard Nixon led to the creation of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 1974. Economist Alice Rivlin served as the CBO's first director. She and her successors were chosen by the leadership of both houses of Congress. Rather than rely on the President's economic assessments, Congress now had its own independent, nonpartisan budget office. Members of the CBO staff spend much of their time preparing cost estimates of all bills reported out of committee—that is, they calculate how much the bill would cost over time. The CBO works closely with the House and Senate Budget Committees, as well as with other committees, and prepares many special reports on the costs of issues that the committees are studying. Congress also looks to the CBO to scrutinize the President's annual budget and other requests for funds from executive branch agencies. Although often critical of the administration's figures and statistics, the CBO tries diligently not to take sides with either political party.

See also Budget and Impoundment Control Act, Congressional (1974); Legislative agencies

Sources

• Rudolph G. Penner, ed., The Congressional Budget Office after Five Years (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1981)

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was established by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (88 Stat. 302; 2 U.S.C. 601), approved July 12, 1974. The act also created a new procedure by which Congress considers and acts upon the annual federal budget. This new process enables Congress to have an overview of the federal budget and to make overall decisions regarding spending, taxing levels, and any deficit or surplus. Congress is thus provided with a mechanism through which it can weigh the priorities for national resource allocation and explicitly address issues of fiscal policy.

The Congressional Budget Office provides Congress with basic budget data and with analyses of alternative fiscal, budgetary, and programmatic policy issues. CBO has specific responsibility for the following.

Economic Forecasting and Fiscal Policy Analysis

The federal budget both affects and is affected by the national economy. Congress considers the federal budget in the context of the current and projected state of the national economy. CBO provides periodic forecasts and analyses of economic trends and alternative fiscal policies.

Scorekeeping

Under the new budget process Congress establishes, by concurrent resolution, targets (or ceilings) for overall expenditures for budget authority and budget outlays and for broad functional categories. Congress also establishes targets (or ceilings) for the levels of revenues, the deficit, and the public debt. CBO "keeps score" for Congress by monitoring the results of congressional action on individual authorization, appropriation, and revenue bills against the targets or ceilings specified in the concurrent resolutions.

Cost Projections

The Congressional Budget Office is required to develop five-year cost estimates for carrying out any public bill or resolution reported by congressional committees. At the start of each fiscal year, CBO also provides five-year projections on the costs of continuing current federal spending and taxation policies.

An Annual Report on the Budget

The Congressional Budget Office is responsible for furnishing the House and Senate Budget Committees by April 1 of each year with a report that includes a discussion of alternative spending and revenues levels and alternative allocations among major programs and functional categories, all in the light of major national needs and the effect on the balanced growth and development of the United States.

Special Studies

The Congressional Budget Office undertakes studies requested by Congress on budget-related areas. As required by the establishing act, such service is provided in the following order of priority to the House and Senate Budget Committees; the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the Senate Finance and the House Ways and Means Committees; all other congressional committees.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government. It is a government agency that provides economic data to Congress.^[1] It was created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

With respect to estimating spending for Congress, the Congressional Budget Office serves a purpose parallel to that of the Joint Committee on Taxation for estimating revenue for Congress, the Department of the Treasury for estimating revenues for the Executive and estimates required for the Congressional budget process. This includes projections on the effect on national debt.^[2]

Directors

Douglas W. Elmendorf	January 22, 2009 -
Robert A. Sunshine (Acting)	November 25, 2008 - January 22, 2009
Peter R. Orszag	January 18, 2007 - November 25, 2008
Donald B. Marron (Acting)	December 29, 2005 – January 2007
Douglas Holtz-Eakin	February 5, 2003 - December 29, 2005
Barry B. Anderson (Acting)	January 3, 2003 – February 5, 2003
Dan L. Crippen	February 3, 1999 - January 3, 2003
James Blum (Acting)	January 29, 1999 – February 3, 1999
June E. O'Neill	March 1, 1995 - January 29, 1999
Robert D. Reischauer	March 6, 1989 - February 28, 1995
James L. Blum (Acting)	- March 6, 1989
Edward M. Gramlich (Acting)	April 28, 1987 -
Rudolph G. Penner	September 1, 1983 - April 28, 1987
Alice M. Rivlin	February 24, 1975 - August 31, 1983

References

1. ^ Sullivan, arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 388. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4. 
2. ^ http://www.cbo.gov/aboutcbo/

See also

• United States federal budget

External links

• CBO website
• CBO Director's blog

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