When CBO celebrated its 40th anniversary two weeks ago, we hosted an event in the auditorium of the Capitol Visitor Center.
We were honored to receive congratulatory messages from the majority and minority sides of both the House and Senate Budget Committees—Congressman Tom Price, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Senator Rob Portman, and Senator Bernie Sanders. In addition, we were delighted to be joined by all seven of CBO’s former directors—Alice Rivlin, Rudy Penner, Bob Reischauer, June O’Neill, Dan Crippen, Doug Holtz-Eakin, and Peter Orszag.
Alice Rivlin, who was the first director, gave the keynote address (read transcript or listen to audio):
In her talk, Alice said:
"Plenty of skeptics would not have given much for our chances of surviving 40 months, let alone 40 years. … I believe CBO survived because Congress needs it so badly. It needs an independent nonpartisan agency to make budget estimates and do analysis of budget alternatives."
After noting the large recent increase in the federal debt, she went on to say:
"These budget facts make estimates of the future impact of today’s spending and taxing decisions far more important to policy makers than they were 40 or even 10 years ago. They make it much more important that Congress have a strong, nonpartisan agency doing the best it can in the face of great economic uncertainty and partisan polarization to give Congress and the public its best effort to estimate what budget actions will cost and what their consequences will be."
After Alice’s remarks, Bob Sunshine, the Deputy Director, asked the former directors a range of questions. He also read a memo that Alice wrote to people at CBO in 1976 emphasizing the importance of the agency being, and being perceived to be, truly nonpartisan. Like many of the principles laid down in the early days of CBO by Alice, Bob Reischauer, and others who established the agency, the perspective in that memo has remained one of our touchstones for 40 years.
We are grateful for all of the current and former CBOers, and our guests, who helped us celebrate the history of this remarkable organization. And we look forward to many more decades of service to the Congress and the nation.