The Congressional Budget Office is a nonpartisan legislative branch agency of the United States federal government, established in 1974 and headquartered at the Ford House Office Building. It produces cost estimates and economic analyses that carry binding weight in the congressional budget process, yet does so with a staff of roughly 235 people. Its scores can shape or kill major legislation, giving a small agency an outsized role in American fiscal policy. The House and Senate Budget Committees share responsibility for nominating candidates for the Director’s position, with the two chambers alternating that role under an informal agreement.
Key facts
- Country: United States
- Founded: 1974
- Headquarters: Ford House Office Building
- Type: legislative branch agency; fiscal council
- Parent organisation: United States House of Representatives
- Employees: 235
- Website: https://www.cbo.gov/
Origins and founding
Congress created the CBO in 1974 as a counterweight to the executive branch’s budget apparatus. The model for the new agency came partly from California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, which had been providing nonpartisan fiscal and policy advice to the California Legislature since 1941, more than three decades before the federal body came into existence.
Alice Rivlin was appointed as the CBO’s founding Director, taking office on February 24, 1975. She was the first woman to hold that position. Rivlin found herself responsible for an agency that had no permanent staff, no permanent offices, and what she later described as a very sketchy mandate. A substantial part of her first year was spent on Capitol Hill defending her vision for what the office should be. In 1975 she also had to appear before the House Appropriations Committee to justify the very existence and scope of the new agency, since Congress had given her little guidance and was quick to challenge her when she acted on her own initiative. Rivlin served until August 31, 1983.
Structure and leadership
The Director serves a four-year term and may be reappointed. Under the informal arrangement between the two chambers, the House and Senate Budget Committees take turns putting forward a nominee for the position.
The agency employs approximately 235 people. All staff are hired without regard to political affiliation, a structural feature that underpins the office’s claim to nonpartisan status.
Methods: conventional and dynamic scoring
For most of its history, the CBO used conventional scoring, which estimates the budgetary effect of legislation while holding macroeconomic conditions constant. Dynamic scoring, which incorporates broader feedback effects on the economy, has a longer and more complicated legislative history. It first appeared in House rules in 1997, but at that stage it was designated for informational purposes only.
In January 2015, House Republicans adopted a rule making dynamic scoring a formal requirement. Under that rule, the CBO must use dynamic scoring for any bill projected to have a budgetary effect of at least 0.25 percent of U.S. GDP. Bills below that threshold continue to receive conventional scores.
Notable estimates and controversies
The CBO has been a repeated target of political criticism. In 2017, the Trump administration’s White House press secretary Sean Spicer publicly called the office’s projections ‘way, way off,’ referring specifically to its scoring of the Affordable Care Act. Former CBO Director Doug Elmendorf responded that the office’s ACA projections for overall coverage had in fact been more accurate than those of many Republican opponents of the law.
Critics also pointed to a gap of roughly $1.5 trillion between the CBO’s revenue projections following the 2017 tax bill and actual revenues. Analysts who study the office have attributed most of that shortfall to the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic and the high inflation that followed, rather than to a flaw in CBO methodology.
In 2025, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the CBO was ‘Democrat controlled.’ The agency’s staff are hired without regard to political affiliation, and the director at the time had been appointed on the joint recommendation of both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.
In July 2025, the CBO released its final conventional score of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, estimating that the legislation would add $3.4 trillion to the primary deficit over the fiscal year 2025 to 2034 budget window.
Alice Rivlin’s broader career
After leaving the CBO in 1983, Alice Rivlin went on to hold two other prominent roles in American economic governance. Under President Clinton she became the first woman to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She subsequently served as Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999.
Did you know
- The CBO was inspired by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, which has provided nonpartisan fiscal and policy advice to the California Legislature since 1941, more than three decades before the federal agency was created. (lao.ca.gov)
- When Alice Rivlin became the CBO’s first Director in February 1975, she found herself in charge of a new agency with no staff, no permanent offices, and a very sketchy mandate, and spent much of her first year defending her vision for the office on Capitol Hill. (case.hks.harvard.edu)
- In 2025, President Trump publicly called the CBO ‘Democrat controlled’ on Truth Social, even though the agency’s staff are all hired without regard to political affiliation and the director was appointed on the joint recommendation of both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. (npr.org)
- Alice Rivlin, who led the CBO from 1975 to 1983, later became the first woman to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (under President Clinton) and subsequently served as Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999. (budgetcounsel.com)
- CBO critics noted that the agency underestimated revenues following the passage of the 2017 tax bill by roughly $1.5 trillion, though analysts who study the office note that gap is largely attributable to the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic and resulting high inflation, not a flaw in the CBO’s methodology. (npr.org)
- In its first year of operation in 1975, the CBO’s founding director had to defend before the House Appropriations Committee the very existence and scope of the new agency, since Congress had given Rivlin little or no guidance yet was quick to challenge her when she acted on her own initiative. (case.hks.harvard.edu)
- Dynamic scoring, requiring CBO to incorporate broad macroeconomic effects in its estimates, first appeared in House rules in 1997 but was designated ‘for informational purposes only’; it took until 2015 before it became a formal requirement for major legislation exceeding 0.25 percent of GDP in budgetary effect. (thompsoncoburn.com)
Data sources
Data updated: 2026-10-31