CBO’s Current Plan for Its Major Periodic Reports This Year
Report
CBO plans to adjust its usual report schedule to keep the Congress informed about the rapidly evolving economic and budgetary consequences of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
CBO is working to inform the Congress about the rapidly evolving economic and budgetary consequences of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and to support the legislative process as the Congress confronts those challenges. To provide the most accurate and useful analysis possible, the agency plans to adjust its usual report schedule.
In April, CBO released preliminary budget and economic projections for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Those projections incorporated dramatic changes in the budgetary and economic situation that were expected to result from the pandemic. We will follow that up with a report—to be released on May 19—that will provide more detail about CBO's assessment of key aspects of the economic outlook for those two years. Supplemental material will include historical data and preliminary projections of a broader set of economic variables for the 2020–2030 period.
CBO usually releases a summer update to its 10-year budget and economic projections in late August. We expect to issue that report in early September, shortly before Labor Day.
CBO usually releases its long-term budget projections (which span 30 years) in the summer, building on the 10-year budget and economic projections released in the spring. Because CBO’s spring projections excluded the impact of the pandemic and therefore no longer provide a realistic basis for that analysis, the long-term budget projections will be based on the summer update and will probably be released in late September.
Finally, every two years, CBO prepares a report about options for reducing the deficit. We expect that report to be released in December.
Unanticipated events may require revisions to this schedule.