Happy 40th Anniversary to CBO!

Posted by
Doug Elmendorf
on
February 24, 2015

Forty years ago today, Alice Rivlin was appointed Director of the Congressional Budget Office, and CBO began its service to the Congress and the country.

CBO’s mission has been the same throughout the past 40 years: We aim to provide the Members of Congress with analysis of budgetary and economic issues that Members can use in making the difficult policy choices they face.

From its start, the agency has been committed to providing information that is:

  • Objective and nonpartisan—representing not the personal opinions of CBO analysts but the consensus and diversity of views of experts from around the country;
  • Insightful—applying the best new evidence and innovative ideas as well as the lessons of experience;
  • Timely—responding as quickly as possible to the needs of the Congress; and
  • Clearly presented and explained—so that policymakers and analysts understand the basis for the agency’s findings and have the opportunity to question the methodology used.

CBO makes no policy recommendations. Instead, we strive to present fully and fairly the likely consequences of alternative proposals being considered by the Congress so that the Members can make informed policy choices.

We are proud of our success in serving the Congress and the country for 40 years. That success has been made possible in part by the ongoing support we have received from the Budget Committees, the House and Senate Leadership, and other Members of Congress. We are very grateful for their support. Our success has also been facilitated by the many people whose knowledge and perspective we have sought in the course of our work and who have graciously given their time to help us. So, we are grateful as well to those experts from other government agencies, from the academic community and think tanks, and from the private sector.

Yet, I know that our success has stemmed most of all from the talents and commitment of the amazing people who have worked at CBO. Throughout these 40 years, the Congress and the country have benefited from their dedication, hard work (often on nights, weekends, and holidays), careful analysis, and unbending commitment to objectivity and nonpartisanship. The CBO staff—both those who do the analysis and those who provide the organizational infrastructure that makes it possible—exemplify the very best of what it means to be public servants.

Some of CBO’s staff members have been at the agency for nearly its entire life: Debb Kalcevic, who analyzes student loans and other aspects of federal education policy, joined CBO in the summer of 1975, and Bob Sunshine, who is currently the Deputy Director, joined CBO in 1976. Many other people have served at CBO for three years—or thirteen, or thirty—and have made critical contributions to our analysis and to the operations of the agency. Moreover, new people continue to come to CBO, bringing their own ideas and energy. Our most recent arrival is Meredith Decker, who started here two weeks ago and is working on projections of government interest payments and other topics. We are delighted to have her join us.

The people who have worked at CBO during the past 40 years recognize the responsibility that has been placed upon us by the Congress. We have done our very best to meet that responsibility in the past, and we will do our very best in the future. That means sustaining the ways in which CBO has been successful while continuing to find ways to do even better—to make our analysis more accurate, to explain that analysis more clearly, and to run the agency more effectively. My current colleagues and I understand that our predecessors’ commitment to this process of improvement created the strong agency that we joined, and we are committed to carrying on that tradition.

As we celebrate the past 40 years of CBO, we are looking ahead eagerly to the next 40 years—and more!