Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to improve the CBO's health-policy analysis and transparency by tapping outside experts, trading off better-informed cost estimates and program design against the risk that industry-connected advisers could bias those analyses without strong conflict management.
Taxpayers and state governments: the CBO will receive expert health-policy input that improves the accuracy of cost estimates and analyses of health programs and proposed legislation, making fiscal predictions more reliable.
Hospitals, health systems, and health researchers: recruiting recognized experts (finance, actuaries, providers, Medicare/Medicaid specialists) into CBO analysis can improve policymaking and program design for health care programs.
Taxpayers and the public: annual public reports on expert recommendations and how the CBO used them increase transparency around the advisory process and help hold the agency accountable.
Taxpayers and patients with chronic conditions: panel members' ties to industry could bias CBO estimates and recommendations if conflicts are not fully disclosed and managed, producing skewed analyses that favor private interests.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a 15-member CBO Panel of Health Advisors to advise and improve CBO health-related studies and cost estimates and require an annual public report.
Official title: Amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to codify the Panel of Health Advisors within the Congressional Budget Office, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 22, 2025 by John Peter Ricketts · Last progress May 22, 2025
Creates a 15-member CBO Panel of Health Advisors housed inside the Congressional Budget Office to provide technical expertise and recommendations to improve CBO studies, analyses, and cost estimates about health and health care. The panel must meet at least once a year, produce an annual report with recommendations adopted by at least nine members, and the CBO Director must publish the report and describe how CBO used the recommendations. Membership is appointed by the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Budget Committees (3 each) and the CBO Director (3); members serve staggered three-year terms as special government employees (up to two terms). The Director may require conflict-of-interest disclosures and confidentiality agreements. The bill simply adds the panel and related reporting and appointment rules to the Congressional Budget Act’s table of contents.