Budgetary Effects of Making Specified Policies in the Build Back Better Act Permanent
Report
CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation project the budgetary effects, including the effects on interest costs, of a modified version of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, that would make various policies permanent rather than temporary.
This letter responds to a request from Senator Graham and Congressman Jason Smith for a projection of the budgetary effects, including the effects on interest costs, of a modified version of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act. They specified modifications that would make various policies permanent rather than temporary.
The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation project that a version of the bill modified as they have specified would increase the deficit by $3.0 trillion over the 2022–2031 period. That amount includes three components: effects usually counted in CBO’s cost estimates, the effects of increased resources for tax enforcement, and effects on interest on the public debt. Under long-standing guidelines agreed to by the legislative and executive branches, estimates to be used for budget enforcement purposes include the first component but not the second and third.
In comparison, including the same three components, the version of H.R. 5376 that was passed by the House of Representatives would increase the deficit by $0.2 trillion over the 2022–2031 period, CBO projects. The largest difference between the two estimates stems from an increase in the child tax credit that ends after 2022 in the House-passed version of the bill.
