Chairman Arrington Highlights the Need for an Independent Audit of CBO to Improve Transparency and Accuracy
“Both Republicans and Democrats have shared their concerns over the years about scores that were either not accurate, not timely, or transparent.” -Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) delivered remarks at the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch’s Member Day Hearing, calling for the first-ever independent audit of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
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On the importance of CBO’s role to inform Congress:
“The Congressional Budget Office has a very difficult job. They fundamentally score policies that we develop and draft in the form of legislation, and that score will show up as either more revenue or greater expense. Over a budget window of 10 years, that will affect the economic outlook, so it could affect growth rates and interest rates. In order for us as lawmakers to make informed decisions, CBO has a huge responsibility to make sure that those scores are accurate, that the way they arrived with those scores are transparent, so that we can have some give and take, good healthy debate, and that they're timely, because these things have to move expeditiously to solve some of the big problems facing our country.”
On bipartisan consensus for an independent audit of CBO:
“50 years since the 1974 Budget Act and the Budget Committee and CBO were created, not once have we as Budget Committee members, both Democrat and Republican, had the value and benefit of an independent audit of CBO. Not even a GAO audit. Every department and every agency and most programs in the federal government have endured some sort of audit because that gives us as Members the information, we need to decide if there are ways to improve these programs, these agencies, these departments. This is not a political exercise or a partisan exercise. I think there's been enough criticism on both sides about, again, accuracy, timeliness, and transparency. I'm simply requesting that we put some money in to do an independent audit.”
On improving CBO’s resources and modeling:
“Mr. Chairman, one of the recommendations may be that they need more resources. They may not have enough personnel, the right personnel, but they may also be working on older, outmoded predictive modeling and things that we could modernize to improve it. I just want to make sure that we, as members and as the customer of CBO, have the information we need to make the right decisions based on our views, our values and the people we represent. I urge you to consider what I believe is not just bipartisan but is a nonpartisan exercise that is just good government, and I think it will go a long way. While I'm retiring at the end of this year, whether it is a Democrat chairman or Republican chairman, they should have this information after 50 years without an audit, so that we can govern our great country together much better and much more effectively.”
