Financial commitments of the federal government and their prominence within a broader category of contingent liabilities
Three measures of the size of financial commitments that CBO developed in its March 2023 report Financial Commitments of Federal Credit and Insurance Programs, 2012 to 2021
Examples of federal commitments:
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s coverage of private pensions
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s orderly liquidation authority, which could be used in the event of a failure of a large, systemically important financial institution
Supplemental appropriations for natural disasters
How unexpected losses on financial commitments affect three different measures of federal debt
