Phillip Swagel Reappointed as Director of Congressional Budget Office
Budget Committee Chairs look forward to continued collaboration
Today, House and Senate leadership re-appointed Dr. Phillip Swagel to a second four-year term as Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). As required by the Congressional Budget Act, the appointment was made jointly by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Patty Murray (D-WA), upon the joint recommendation of House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
“Dr. Swagel’s has the two key ingredients to faithfully execute the roll as our nation’s budget scorekeeper - objectivity and integrity,” said Chairman Arrington. “CBO’s work product has tremendous implications on public policy, and I am committed to working with Dr. Swagel to ensure we improve the budget scoring process and achieve more timely and accurate outcomes. Additionally, I look forward to working with him and his colleagues at CBO to sound the alarm regarding our unsustainable fiscal trajectory in order to spur bipartisan leadership to address our runaway deficit spending and record debt before it’s too late.”
“I look forward to continuing to work productively with Dr. Swagel,” said Senator Whitehouse. “He has been both a fair arbiter when scoring bills and responsive in explaining his agency’s methodology. I especially look forward to working with CBO as it does further work to analyze the vast budgetary and economic costs of climate change and to estimate the potential savings from delivery system reform of our byzantine health care system.”
Dr. Swagel assumed his position as the tenth Director of the Congressional Budget Office on June 3, 2019. His second term will end on January 3, 2027.
Prior to his appointment as CBO Director, Dr. Swagel taught economics at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He also served at the Council of Economic Advisers and as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush. He earned his bachelor’s from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
CBO was established in 1975 to produce independent, non-partisan analyses of economic and budgetary issues in support of the congressional budget process. The agency plays a key role in producing cost estimates for legislation proposed in Congress, but does not make policy recommendations.
