CBO Blog

  • CBO is One of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

    I am delighted to announce that this morning CBO was recognized bythe Partnership for Public Serviceasone of the "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.CBO ranked third overall in the small agency category.

  • Tax Preferences for Collegiate Sports

    Long viewed as an integral component of higher education, athletic programs in many universities have become highly commercialized and, in some cases, are very rewarding financially: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) mens basketball tournament alone garnered about $143 million in revenue for athletic departments in 2008, and college football bowl games generated a similar amount.

  • Budget Implications of U.S. Contributions to the International Monetary Fund

    The President recently requested that the Congress provide an increase of about $8 billion in the U.S. quota for participation in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an increase of additional line of credit for the IMF of approximately $100 billion.

  • Financing Federal Aviation Programs

    Last weekCBO's Deputy Director Robert Sunshinetestified about the financing of the federal governments aviation programs (basicallyoperations of theFederal Aviation Administration) before the House Ways and Means Committee.Reauthorization of the aviation programs raises a number of significant policy questions:

  • Alternatives for Modernizing U.S. Fighter Forces

    The United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are in the process of replacing most of todays fighter aircraft with new F/A-18E/F, F-22, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft. Although procurement plans call for purchasing about 2,500 aircraft over the next 25 years, the services are projecting that those purchases will be unable to keep pace with the need to retire todays aircraft as they reach the limit of their service life.

  • CBO's Climate Team

    Policymakers focus on climate change has shaped one of CBOs principal areas of work. Last week, I testified on the distribution of the costsof reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through a cap-and-trade system, and CBO issued a report on the potential impacts of climate change.

  • Monthly Budget Review

    Yesterday CBO released its Monthly Budget Review for May. The federal government incurred a deficit of close to $800 billion for the first seven months of fiscal year 2009, CBO estimates$646 billion more than the deficit recorded through April 2008. Notably, receipts in April were about $140 billion (or 35 percent) lower than receipts in April 2008, CBO estimates.

  • Testimony: The Distribution of Revenues from a Cap-and-Trade Program for Carbon Dioxide Emissions

    I testified this morning before the Senate Finance Committee on the distribution of revenues from a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions. My comments emphasized these points:

  • Budgetary Effects of Selected Policy Alternatives

    CBO recently transmitted to the Congress a table showing budget projections for policy paths that may serve as useful alternatives to CBOs current-law baseline projections. The new table is very similar to the table of selected policy alternatives that CBO published in January in our Budget Outlook report, reflecting CBOs updated March baseline projections.

  • CBO's Health Team

    Today's Wall Street Journal quotes me saying that CBO has between 40 and 50 people working "more than full time" on health reform. Yesterday's Politico included me in an article about "Names, Faces to Watch for In Debate Over Care," and the story referred to "Elmendorf and his team of anonymous analysts."