CBO Blog

In 2018, 46 million people living in the United States—or 14 percent of the population—had been born in other countries. CBO examines the employment and earnings of men and women by their legal immigration status, level of education, and birthplace.

CBO examines two options for establishing a Space National Guard to support active component Space Force personnel, estimating the additional costs beyond those incurred for existing Air and Army National Guard units that have space-related missions.

CBO discusses choices about revenues and spending that lawmakers face in addressing the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund as well as options for subsidizing state and local governments’ financing of highway projects.

CBO estimates that real gross domestic product will contract by 11 percent in the second quarter of this year, which is equivalent to a decline of 38 percent at an annual rate, and that the number of people employed will be almost 26 million lower than the number in the fourth quarter of 2019.

CBO learns from many outside experts, including our Panel of Economic Advisers, about important analytical issues in the advisers’ areas of expertise and to obtain feedback about our economic forecast.

The federal budget typically records a surplus in April because final tax payments for the prior year and estimated payments for the current year are usually due on April 15. But this year, the government incurred a deficit of $737 billion in April, CBO estimates, compared with a surplus of $160 billion last year.

CBO discusses its preliminary projections of key economic variables and its preliminary assessments of federal budget deficits and debt through 2021. The amounts include the effects of legislation enacted in response to the pandemic.

View CBO’s budget infographics to see how much the federal government spent and took in during fiscal year 2019, as well as broader trends in the budget over the past few decades.

The federal budget deficit was $741 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2020, CBO estimates, $50 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year.

Each quarter, CBO provides information about its work in progress. As of March 31, the agency was working on 159 cost estimates for legislation in addition to 25 analytic products.