CBO issued a letter today reviewing a new investment policy recently adopted by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). As part of its analysis, CBO reviewed the assumptions underlying PBGCs decision and assessed the revised policy's potential for affecting the corporation's ability to meet its obligation to retirees and for increasing costs to taxpayers.
April 2008
I am testifying this morning before the Senate Finance Committee on the implications of a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions. The testimony is posted here.
CBO has released an updated report on the cyclically adjusted and standardized budget. The new report is a companion to the baseline budget projections published in CBOs March 2008 Analysis of the Presidents Budget.
Despite some suggestions in the press to the contrary, CBO has not yet issued a cost estimate for the FHA-related housing proposal that is under discussion in the House of Representatives. A bill sponsored by Mr. Frank was introduced late today and CBO is reviewing it. CBO will issue a cost estimate for the legislation soon after it is approved by the House Committee on Financial Services, and I will post a link to the cost estimate when we issue it.
Today, CBO released a new issue brief on increasing disparities in life expectancy. Here I provide a brief summary of the brief (yes, I recognize the irony in that phrasing):
This morning, CBO released a new study on policy options for the housing and mortgage markets. The paper discusses the potential for federal intervention to ameliorate the situation, by encouraging and removing impediments to private mortgage restructuring or by providing federal financial support.
CBO has issued a cost estimate of S. 2191, the America's Climate Security Act of 2007, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007. We've also issued a cost estimate on a slightly amended version of the legislation that was transmitted to us on April 9, 2008.
I am testifying this afternoon before the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), crowd-out (that is, the substitution of public insurance coverage for private insurance coverage), and the August 17th directive from the Administration to state health officials (which has generated significant controversy). The testimony is posted here. The testimony makes the following main points:
The U.S. military invaded Iraq in March 2003, and the conflict there has continued for the ensuing five years. In September 2002, CBO published its first projection of the costs associated with a U.S. invasion of Iraq. CBO has subsequently provided the Congress with numerous updates of funding provided to date for that conflict, as well as projections of future costs under several alternative scenarios. Indeed, in part because the Defense Department has never published its own long-range timetable for future U.S.
The Environmental Law Institute and Vanderbilt Law School are holding a conference on several important environmental topics this week. Terry Dinan of CBO and I are commenting on a climate change article written by Cass Sunstein. Our written comment is below.
Comment on Of Montreal and Kyoto: A Tale of Two Protocols
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