09.13.18

Chairman Enzi: CBO’s Analyses Must Be Timely, Objective, Accurate, and Transparent

WASHINGTON D.C. – During a Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) expanded transparency initiatives, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) said that CBO should continue to focus on producing accurate and objective budget estimates in a transparent manner.

“In the more than 40 years since CBO’s inception, Congress and the public have come to depend on CBO for its budget and economic analyses – analyses that we all agree must be timely, objective, accurate, and transparent,” said Chairman Enzi. “That means ensuring the agency’s work is accessible and well understood.”

Chairman Enzi noted that last month CBO released a report providing an update on its transparency efforts, which include the agency’s work to better explain analytical methods, release relevant data, compare agency estimates with actuals, visualize data, and conduct outreach. These initiatives include work performed at Enzi’s request comparing the agency’s spending projections with actual outcomes and releasing supplemental data on more than 1,000 expired and expiring appropriations. The chairman also expressed interest in CBO’s future plans regarding modeling transparency, specifically in the area of health care.

“I have no doubt that CBO will continue to play a critical role in support of the congressional budget process,” Chairman Enzi said. “In my view, efforts to increase transparency at CBO will only help to enhance the agency’s reputation for producing accurate and objective budget estimates.”

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