Sponsors (36)
The bill increases transparency and external scrutiny of CBO models and assumptions, but imposes legal, administrative, and cost challenges that may limit what can be released and could divert CBO resources from analysis.
Members of Congress and taxpayers gain access to CBO models and supporting data, increasing transparency and trust in federal cost estimates.
Independent researchers, academics, and universities can replicate and validate CBO analyses, improving outside scrutiny and methodological quality of budget estimates.
Publishing model updates and assumptions promotes accountability and gives policymakers and the public more timely oversight of changing inputs used in cost estimates.
Full-disclosure requirements could conflict with legal nondisclosure obligations, creating administrative burdens and limiting what can actually be released to the public.
Preparing, redacting, and publishing models and replication packages will increase CBO workload and costs, potentially diverting staff time from core analytic work.
Because sensitive underlying data may remain nondisclosable, outside reviewers may still be unable to fully replicate analyses, limiting the practical effectiveness of the transparency measures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires CBO to publish models, data-prep routines, and—to the extent allowed—data, code, and replication details for its estimates, with limited disclosure alternatives for protected data.
Introduced January 24, 2025 by Warren Davidson · Last progress January 24, 2025
Requires the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to publish on the CBO website the fiscal and policy models, data-preparation routines, and related materials used to produce CBO estimates, and to provide—subject to legal nondisclosure limits—the data, programs, assumptions, and computation details needed for outside parties to reproduce CBO analyses. For data CBO cannot disclose, CBO must publish variable lists, descriptive statistics (as allowed), the statutory citation for nondisclosure, and contact information for the party that has unrestricted access. The rule changes take effect six months after enactment. Also makes a technical edit to the Congressional Budget Act language to convert the opening phrase into a subsection heading and relabel the existing material accordingly.