History | Congressional Budget Office (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of the Congressional Budget Office? ›

CBO was established under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to provide objective, nonpartisan information to support the federal budget process. CBO's mission is to help the Congress make effective budget and economic policy.

CBO is required by law to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee of either the House or the Senate; the only exceptions are appropriation bills, which do not receive written cost estimates but whose budgetary effects CBO estimates for the Appropriations Committees.

Senator Collins was a lead negotiator of the bipartisan legislation. Washington, D.C. – Today, by a vote of 75-22, the U.S. Senate passed the six-bill Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) appropriations package.

CBO is strictly nonpartisan; conducts objective, impartial analysis; and hires its employees solely on the basis of professional competence without regard to political affiliation. CBO does not make policy recommendations, and each report and cost estimate summarizes the methodology underlying the analysis.

There is a consensus among economists that "adjusting for legal restrictions on what the CBO can assume about future legislation and events, the CBO has historically issued credible forecasts of the effects of both Democratic and Republican legislative proposals."

CBO's organization consists of the Office of the Director and nine divisions. The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate jointly appoint CBO's Director, after considering recommendations from the two Budget Committees.

A CBO “score” is just the price tag of a bill as determined by the CBO. For every major bill, the CBO issues a report showing how a piece of legislation would change spending by the federal government as compared to current law, typically over a ten year period. This estimate is known informally as a “score.”

Home / Articles / How much does the US spend on the military? In 2023, the US military spent approximately $820.3 billion, or roughly 13.3% of the entire federal budget for that fiscal year. In March 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested $842.0 billion for 2024 — a 2.6% increase.

For dynamic scoring, CBO and JCT prepare conventional, nondynamic scores of proposed legislation and then use economic models to identify any short- or long-run effects on the overall economy. The agencies then estimate the budget effects of those macroeconomic feedbacks.

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $460 billion package of spending bills approved by the Senate in time to avoid a shutdown of many key federal agencies. The legislation's success gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year.

When was the last time the U.S. government passed a budget on time? ›

Congress has completed appropriations before the start of the fiscal year only 4 times in the past 40 years. The last time Congress completed all bills on time was 20 years ago, in 1996.

President Joe Biden formally signed the year-end omnibus package into law, staving off a government shutdown and completing the budget cycle for fiscal year 2024.

A budget resolution is a kind of concurrent resolution; it is not a law, and therefore does not require the President's signature. There is no obligation for either or both houses of Congress to pass a budget resolution.

CBO is required by law to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee of either the House or the Senate. The agency also publishes cost estimates at other stages of the legislative process if requested to do so by a relevant committee or by the Congressional leadership.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produces independent, nonpartisan, analysis of economic and budgetary issues to support the Congressional budget process.

OMB was originally established in 1921 as the Bureau of the Budget (BOB) within the Department of the Treasury. It functioned under the supervision of the President. In 1939, the office was transferred to the newly created EOP. BOB was redesignated in 1970 as OMB.

The committee originated with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (PL 93-344), which permitted Congress to develop an independent means to analyze the Presidential budget, reconcile it with congressional plans, and develop a fiscal policy of its own.

The Congressional Record has been published by the GPO since 1873. Both the Bound edition and the daily issues are available on govinfo.gov. Before 1873, records of congressional proceedings were kept under various titles including Annals of Congress, Register of Debates and Congressional Globe.