Congressional Budget Office

Today I thought I would talk a little bit about the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

First, the CBO is part of the legislative branch of government. The Director is appointed for a four-year term by the House and Senate Budget Committees. CBO is required by law to analyze the cost of the President's budget proposal as well as provide a "cost estimate and mandate statement for every bill reported by a Congressional committee." These cost estimates are available online from the 105th Congress (1997-98) forward.

The majority of CBO's publications are available online. You can search by subject area, recent publications, or keyword. An example of a recent CBO report is "Testimony on Estimating the Costs of Military Operations in Iraq."

If you are interested in learning more about the laws governing the CBO, check out the US Code Title 2, Chapter 17.