Telephone: (202) 226-2800
Fax: (202) 226-1366
The Budget Analysis Division is responsible for preparing the bill cost estimates and spending projections called for in the Budget Act, including multiyear baseline projections for the total federal budget and the state and local mandate statements required under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. The division also analyzes the President's spending proposals, leads the agency's efforts in preparing the annual report on the President's budget and the Monthly Budget Review, and produces the report on unauthorized appropriations and expiring authorizations each year. The Congress relies on CBO's cost estimates of legislation and budget projections to prepare its annual budget plan, evaluate the President's budgetary proposals, and keep track of more than $2 trillion in yearly spending.
The division's estimates of costs for federal spending programs come from four units: defense, international affairs, and veterans' affairs; human resources; health; and natural and physical resources. A fifth unit estimates the costs of mandates imposed on state, local, and tribal governments. Other units in the division make budget projections, compile estimates for annual appropriation bills, maintain the budget scorekeeping system, and support the division's computer systems.
Peter H. Fontaine came to CBO in 1985. He served as an analyst in and then Chief of the Natural and Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit until 1999 and as Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis from 1999 to 2007. Before coming to CBO, he worked for two Washington-area consulting firms, specializing in energy and economic analyses.