Sponsors (2)
The bill speeds access to private budget estimates and private-sector expertise for committee chairs but does so at the risk of weakening nonpartisan public scoring, inviting conflicts of interest, creating inconsistent politicized baselines, and adding administrative costs.
Committee chairs and congressional committees can obtain faster or alternative budget cost estimates from private accounting firms, speeding consideration of reported bills.
Taxpayers and lawmakers may gain additional technical perspectives on complex financial effects because private accounting firms can bring specialized expertise to some estimates.
The Congressional Budget Office and other federal staff could avoid some duplicate work when private estimates are used, potentially freeing CBO/federal resources for other tasks.
Congress and taxpayers may see erosion of nonpartisan, public oversight and transparency in budget scoring if private estimates replace or supplant CBO's public analyses.
Taxpayers and the public face risks of conflicts of interest if private accounting firms that also serve corporate clients produce estimates used for budget enforcement, which could bias outcomes.
Allowing committee chairs to select private estimates could politicize or fragment budget scoring, producing inconsistent baselines across committees and complicating enforcement and comparisons.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows committees (other than Appropriations) to use cost estimates from the ten largest PCAOB‑registered accounting firms instead of the CBO for budget enforcement and procedural rules.
Official title: To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to provide that Congress may request estimates of legislation from reputable accounting firms for purposes of budget enforcement, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress March 31, 2025
Allows House and Senate committees (other than Appropriations) to obtain budget cost estimates from one of the ten largest PCAOB‑registered private accounting firms instead of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Private estimates would substitute for CBO estimates for budget enforcement across many budget laws, concurrent budget resolutions, and chamber rules. Changes a statutory provision to permit private‑firm estimates, defines the eligible firms as the ten largest by net revenue registered with the PCAOB in the prior year, and makes corresponding conforming language so either budget committee may rely on these private estimates for certain budgetary procedures.