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The federal government's finances are pretty complicated and not always easy to understand,and most of CBO's reports about the budget outlook are fairly lengthy and detailed. In fact, one of the questions we're most frequently asked is how much the government spends and takes in each year. For those who are not very familiar with the budget, finding the answer is sometimes harder than it should be.
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Testimony before the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, U.S. Congress
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Letter to the Honorable Olympia J. Snowe
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Estimated Impact of Automatic Budget Enforcement Procedures Specified in the Budget Control Act
- Blog Post
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established incentives to encourage private investment in innovative technologies, including advanced nuclear energy facilities. Much of the government’s support for the construction of nuclear power plants is offered in the form of federal loan guarantees. Those guarantees, which are administered by the Department of Energy (DOE), promote investment in nuclear energy by lowering the cost of borrowing and possibly increasing the availability of credit for project sponsors.
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CBO reviewed the many factors that can influence the cost to the government of guaranteeing loans for the construction of advanced nuclear facilities.
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Until recently the obligations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—two federally chartered institutions (called government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs) that provide credit guarantees for almost half of the outstanding mortgages in the United States—had no official backing from the federal government, nor were any costs associated with them reflected in the federal budget. However, starting in 2007, their losses mounted sharply as housing prices dropped and foreclosure rates climbed.
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Testimony before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives
- Blog Post
Over the past two years, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has guaranteed more than 17 percent of new and refinanced mortgages on single-family homes in the United States. The estimated lifetime costs of FHAs single-family mortgage insurance program are recorded in the federal budget using a methodology spelled out in the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA). Using the FCRA methodology, CBO estimates that the program will produce budgetary savings of $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2012.