CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is responsible for economic forecasting and fiscal policy analysis, scorekeeeping, cost projections, and an ANNUAL REPORT on the FEDERAL BUDGET. The office also underdakes special budget-related studies at the request of Congress. The CBO enables Congress to have an overview of the federal budget and to make overall decisions regarding spending, taxation levels, and any federal 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. The agency employs more
than 200 full-time employees. Seventy percent of
these employees hold advanced degrees in economics
or public policy. CBO also retains a
panel of economic advisors, including a number
of scholars from top universities in the United
States. It 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
(also known as ceilings) for overall expenditures
for budget authority and budget outlays and for
broad functional categories. It also establishes
targets 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 that
are 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 revenue levels and alternative allocations
among major programs and functional
categories, all in 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 that Congress requests on budget-related
areas. As the establishing statute requires, 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; and all other congressional
committees.
Web site: www.cbo.gov
