Sponsor
Benjamin Cline
Representative · R-VA
Representative · R-VA
The bill increases budgetary transparency by forcing CBO to show how baseline assumptions affect cost estimates, at the trade-off of added workload for CBO (and potential indirect costs to taxpayers if additional resources are not provided).
Analysts, lawmakers, and taxpayers get clearer, more transparent CBO cost estimates because the bill requires breakdowns showing how baseline assumptions (like assumed program extensions) affect projected costs.
CBO staff and other federal analysts will face additional analytic workload to produce the baseline-effect breakdowns, which could slow estimate turnaround or require reallocating staff time.
Taxpayers could indirectly bear additional costs if Congress requires more-detailed CBO estimates but does not provide extra funding, forcing CBO to reallocate resources or request higher appropriations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires CBO to disclose and quantify how baseline assumptions affect each congressional cost estimate and identify which assumptions drive differences.
Official title: To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to require the Congressional Budget Office to include the effects of using baseline assumptions when preparing estimates under such Act, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 29, 2026 by Benjamin Cline · Last progress April 29, 2026
Requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to include, in each of its cost estimates, a clear description of how applying baseline assumptions affects the estimate. The CBO must, to the greatest extent practicable, provide a quantitative difference between the published estimate and what the cost would be without baseline assumptions, identify which baseline assumption drives that difference, and explain programs or provisions for which baseline assumptions make costs appear lower or zero compared with expected federal expenditures.