Sponsor
Ron Estes
Representative · R-KS
Representative · R-KS
The bill improves transparency and congressional oversight of very large judicial and executive actions, but at the cost of potential baseline distortions, added administrative burdens for agencies, and continued blind spots for smaller cumulative fiscal effects.
Taxpayers, lawmakers, and state governments get clearer, more timely federal fiscal information because CBO must reflect major judicial/executive actions in baselines and provide a dedicated table for actions with estimated effects of $50 billion or more, improving transparency for oversight and appropriation decisions.
Taxpayers and state governments may see budget baselines and appropriation planning distorted because the law directs CBO to treat proposed executive actions as final for inclusion, potentially counting budget effects that never materialize.
Federal agencies and their staff will face increased administrative burden and compliance costs to assemble and deliver detailed implementation documents within 10 days, diverting time and resources from other work.
Taxpayers may still lack visibility into many cumulative fiscal effects because the $50 billion reporting threshold focuses on very large actions and can omit numerous smaller but collectively significant actions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires CBO to count large judicial and executive actions in the budget baseline, and forces agencies to provide implementation documents within 10 days, with a new $50B disclosure table.
Official title: To include certain executive and judicial actions in the baseline calculation by the Congressional Budget Office, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 10, 2025 by Ron Estes · Last progress December 10, 2025
Requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to incorporate the budget effects of judicial and executive actions (including proposed and final rules, executive orders, and memoranda) into CBO baseline calculations and periodic baseline update reports under agreed scorekeeping practices. Agencies that issue or implement those actions must provide the CBO Director, within 10 days after an action takes effect, written implementation documentation, guidance, and other data the Director requests. The CBO must also, when practicable, include a separate table listing any judicial or executive action since the last report that it estimates will have at least $50 billion in budgetary effects across the current year, the budget year, and the following nine years, treating proposed executive actions as if final for this inclusion when appropriate under scorekeeping rules. The change expands what CBO counts in the federal budget baseline, creates a new high-dollar reporting threshold and table, and imposes a short-timeline documentation duty on agencies that issue or implement covered actions. This could change baseline projections, increase transparency of large executive/judicial actions, and create new administrative burdens and timing tensions for agencies and for CBO scorekeeping practice negotiations with budget committee chairs.