CBO Blog

Today I testified about the cost of government before the Senate Budget Committee and gave the following opening remarks.

As required, CBO reports on whether appropriations enacted for the current fiscal year have exceeded the statutory caps on discretionary spending. In CBO’s estimation, they have not, and a sequestration will not be required for 2017.

CBO and JCT are in the process of preparing a cost estimate for the House-passed version of the American Health Care Act. CBO will provide advance notice of the date and time of release before publishing it.

The federal budget deficit was $348 billion for the first seven months of fiscal year 2017, CBO estimates—$5 billion less than the shortfall recorded during the same span last year.

This blog post explains how CBO analyzes the economic effects of federal subsidies for education and job training. It provides information on the basis for CBO’s estimates and the research that informs them.

During the 2011-2015 period, the difference between the wages, benefits, and total compensation of federal civilian employees and those of similar private-sector employees varied widely depending on the employees’ educational attainment.

CBO estimates that construction costs to build a fleet of 355 ships would average $26.6 billion (in 2017 dollars) per year over the next 30 years, which is 60 percent more than what the Navy has spent on average over the past 30 years.

CBO was asked at a recent hearing how deficit projections would be affected if individual economic variables differed from what the agency expects. This blog post discusses how lower rates of labor force participation would affect the deficit.

The federal budget deficit was $522 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimates—$63 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same span last year. But that result was affected by shifts in the timing of certain payments that otherwise would have been due on a weekend. If not for those shifts, the deficit for the first six months of fiscal year 2017 would have been $61 billion larger than that recorded for the same period last year.

Last year CBO launched an online tool that allows users to search for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates that the agency has identified in bills and public laws. Data for calendar year 2016 are now available.