General Information

CBO's Role and Work

Contact Info

Congressional Budget Office
Ford House Office Building, 4th Floor
Second and D Streets, SW
Washington, DC 20515

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Congressional Affairs
(202) 226-2837
congressionalaffairs@cbo.gov

Media and Public Affairs
(202) 226-2602
communications@cbo.gov

What CBO Publishes

The documents that CBO publishes fall into two main categories:

Cost Estimates and Mandate Statements

The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the Unfunded Mandates Act of 1995 (UMRA) require CBO to produce a cost estimate and mandate statement for every bill reported by a Congressional committee. Each cost estimate provides an assessment of the range of budgetary effects of pending legislation: (1) the potential impact on spending subject to appropriation (also known as discretionary spending), (2) any impact on mandatory spending (also known as direct spending), and (3) any impact on federal revenues (incorporating estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation for legislation that would change the federal tax code). Nearly all cost estimates also include both intergovernmental and private-sector mandate statements, which identify any federal mandates (as defined by UMRA) and estimates of the costs that those mandates would impose on state, local, or tribal governments and on private-sector entities. CBO is often asked to provide preliminary, informal estimates and statements for major proposals, sometimes at earlier stages of the legislative process and sometimes at later stages.

Reports Needed for the Budget Process

Each year, CBO prepares reports on the budget and economic outlook over the next 10 years. The reports provide the Congress with a baseline against which to measure the effects of proposed changes in spending and tax laws. To construct its economic forecasts and projections, CBO draws from ongoing analysis of daily economic events and data, the major commercial forecasting services, consultation with economists both within and outside the federal government, and the advice of the distinguished CBO Panel of Economic Advisers.

Each year, CBO also estimates the budgetary impact of the proposals in the President's budget using the agency's own economic assumptions and estimating techniques--thus enabling the Congress to compare the Administration's spending and revenue proposals to CBO's baseline projections and to other proposals using a consistent set of economic and technical assumptions.

Analytical Studies

CBO performs analytical studies at the request of a Congressional Committee or Subcommittee; the Congressional leadership; or, as time permits, individual Members. The analyses, which address a broad range of topics, are published as studies and papers or as letters, or they are delivered in testimony.

Briefs

OCBO publishes shorter analyses of specific long-standing policy issues of importance to the economy or the budget.

Monthly Budget Review

Each month, CBO issues an analysis of federal spending and revenue totals for the previous month, the current month, and the fiscal year to date. Those Monthly Budget Reviews, which are based on information from the Treasury Department, help to inform the Congress and the public on the monthly status of outlays, receipts, and the deficit or surplus throughout the fiscal year.

Background Papers and Related Documents

CBO discloses the assumptions and technical methods underlying its work. A new series, background papers, will explain aspects of CBO's work at a technical level. Related reports that disclose CBO's track record are the periodic CBO's Economic Forecasting Record and The Uncertainty of Budget Projections.

CBO's working papers, formerly termed technical papers, constitute another series written at a technical level. Those papers, which are preliminary in nature, are circulated to a professional audience in order to further professional discussion of issues relevant to CBO's work. The views expressed in working papers are attributable to their authors and not to CBO.