Oversight
GOP senators scrutinize CBO's new health insurance simulation model
by Susannah Luthi
Republicans of the Senate Budget Committee Republicans have pressed the Congressional Budget Office to release details of the forthcoming new health insurance simulation model.In pointed language, the letter led by committee Chair Sen. Mike Enzy (R-Wyo.) suggested that the CBO should test its model with a do-over of the original estimate of the federal spending and health insurance coverage for the Affordable Care Act "to determine whether the agency's estimate would have been closer to the actu… Continue Reading
10.04.18
GOP want the official scorekeeper to give a second opinion on Obamacare
by Robert King
A group of 12 Republican senators demanded Wednesday that the official congressional scorekeeper reassess Obamacare to test out a new model for estimating insurance coverage. The letter the Republicans sent to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, asking it to use a new model for evaluating insurance coverage, underscores the political implications of the scorekeeper's ongoing work to revamp its modeling. Republicans have complained that CBO estimates of their Obamacare repeal bills over… Continue Reading
10.04.18
Senate Budget Committee Republicans Press CBO on New Health Insurance Model
WASHINGTON D.C. - As part of the Senate Budget Committee's ongoing oversight of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Republican members of the Committee sent a letter to the agency encouraging it to release details of its new health insurance simulation model (HISIM) to the public prior to its use next spring. The members also asked CBO to consider re-estimating federal spending and coverage under the Affordable Care Act using the new health care model to determine whether the agency's estima… Continue Reading
10.04.18
Senate Budget Committee Republicans Press CBO on New Health Insurance Model
WASHINGTON D.C. - As part of the Senate Budget Committee's ongoing oversight of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Republican members of the Committee sent a letter to the agency encouraging it to release details of its new health insurance simulation model (HISIM) to the public prior to its use next spring. The members also asked CBO to consider re-estimating federal spending and coverage under the Affordable Care Act using the new health care model to determine whether the agency's estima… Continue Reading
09.13.18
The Complex Case of Pell Grant Budgeting
The Pell Grant program is the largest single source of grant aid to postsecondary students, with federal spending on the program totaling $30.6 billion in fiscal year 2018. This needbased program also has one of the most complex funding structures in the federal budget, involving a mix of discretionary funding and two separate mandatory spending streams. READ MORE… Continue Reading
09.13.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - The Complex Case of Pell Grant Budgeting
The Pell Grant program is the largest single source of grant aid to postsecondary students, with federal spending on the program totaling $30.6 billion in fiscal year 2018. This needbased program also has one of the most complex funding structures in the federal budget, involving a mix of discretionary funding and two separate mandatory spending streams. READ MORE… Continue Reading
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 tra… Continue Reading
08.02.18
Appropriations with Expired Authorizations
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently updated its annual Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations report to reflect enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. The updated report shows that of the $1.4 trillion in discretionary spending provided for 2018, $318 billion was spent on 1,035 agencies, programs, and functions with expired authorizations of appropriations from 261 different laws. View the August 2 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
08.02.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - Appropriations with Expired Authorizations
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently updated its annual Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations report to reflect enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. The updated report shows that of the $1.4 trillion in discretionary spending provided for 2018, $318 billion was spent on 1,035 agencies, programs, and functions with expired authorizations of appropriations from 261 different laws. View the August 2 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
07.19.18
Chairmen Enzi And Alexander Request Report On Cost Of Student Loan Repayments
WASHINGTON D.C. - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to examine the effects of federal student loan policies on borrowing, loan repayment, cancellation, discharge, and forgiveness. The chairmen are seeking information on income-driven-repayment (IDR) plans. IDR plans allow student borrowers to pay a percentage of their discretionary income e… Continue Reading
07.19.18
Chairmen Enzi and Alexander Request Report on Cost of Student Loan Repayments
WASHINGTON D.C. - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to examine the effects of federal student loan policies on borrowing, loan repayment, cancellation, discharge, and forgiveness. The chairmen are seeking information on income-driven-repayment (IDR) plans. IDR plans allow student borrowers to pay a percentage of their discretionary income e… Continue Reading
07.19.18
Chairmen Enzi and Alexander Request Report on Cost of Student Loan Repayments
WASHINGTON D.C. - Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are asking the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to examine the effects of federal student loan policies on borrowing, loan repayment, cancellation, discharge, and forgiveness. The chairmen are seeking information on income-driven-repayment (IDR) plans. IDR plans allow student borrowers to pay a percentage of their discretionary income e… Continue Reading
07.18.18
Cap Adjustments: How the Government Raises Its Spending Limit
The 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) allows for several cap adjustments to increase spending for specified purposes without triggering a breach of statutory spending limits. These adjustments, which have grown in number in successive spending deals, have supported a staggering $890 billion in discretionary spending beyond the BCA's base caps. View the July 18 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
07.18.18
BUDGET BULLETIN - Cap Adjustments: How the Government Raises Its Spending Limit
The 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) allows for several cap adjustments to increase spending for specified purposes without triggering a breach of statutory spending limits. These adjustments, which have grown in number in successive spending deals, have supported a staggering $890 billion in discretionary spending beyond the BCA's base caps. View the July 18 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Budget chairs press appropriators on veterans spending
by NIV ELIS
The chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees have weighed in on a debate on how to fund a veterans program that has thrown a wrench into the 2019 appropriations process. Last week, the House and Senate Appropriations committees abruptly canceled a conference committee meeting to sort out differences over a package of three spending bills because of disagreements on veterans funding. Their question is whether to fund an expensive veterans program, the VA Mission Act, under existing bu… Continue Reading
07.17.18
Budget Chairmen Urge Conference Committee to Prioritize Veterans within Existing Spending Limits
WASHINGTON, DC - This week, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and House Budget Committee Chairman Steve Womack (AR-03) sent a letter to the members of the conference committee for H.R. 5895, the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019. In the letter, the chairmen urged conferees to prioritize funding for the programs authorized in the VA MISSION Act, which was signed into law on June 6, 2018, within existing spe… Continue Reading
07.16.18
Who watches the ‘watchdog?’
by SENS. MIKE ENZI (R-WYO.), AND DAVID PERDUE (R-GA.)
Enshrined in our Constitution is one of Congress' most important responsibilities-the power of the purse. This requires lawmakers in Washington to review each and every dollar spent to ensure that the federal government is accountable to the American people. The most common way for Congress to exercise this power is through the annual appropriations process, in which lawmakers allocate money to agencies and programs. Unfortunately, there is one federal agency that operates with little or no publ… Continue Reading
07.13.18
Senate Budget Members Make Bipartisan Request for GAO Study of DOD Financial IT Systems
WASHINGTON D.C. - Building on previous Senate Budget Committee oversight work on the DOD audit, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) today requested the Government Accountability Office conduct an independent review of the Department of Defense's plans to acquire modern financial information technology systems capable of generating reliable information and supporting credible financial statements. This reque… Continue Reading
07.12.18
Senate Budget Members Make Bipartisan Request for GAO Study of DOD Financial IT Systems
WASHINGTON D.C. - Building on previous Senate Budget Committee oversight work on the DOD audit, Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) today requested the Government Accountability Office conduct an independent review of the Department of Defense's plans to acquire modern financial information technology systems capable of generating reliable information and supporting credible financial statements. This reque… Continue Reading
06.28.18
Changes in Mandatory Programs: An Overspending Tool
The last decade brought a dramatic rise in the use of changes in mandatory programs, or CHIMPs, in annual appropriations bills. View the June 28 Budget Bulletin online here.… Continue Reading
