Budget Concepts and Process
- Report
CBO Explains How It Develops the Budget Baseline
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires CBO to produce an annual report on federal spending, revenues, and deficits or surpluses. This document provides answers to questions about how CBO prepares those baseline budget projections.
- Blog Post
CBO Releases Updated Budget Primers and Interactive Tools
CBO is engaged in many efforts aimed at fostering transparency, such as providing additional information to help people understand the federal budget process and the agency’s role in that process.
- Interactive
Workbook for How Changes in Economic Conditions Might Affect the Federal Budget: 2023 to 2033
This workbook allows users to define and analyze alternative economic scenarios by specifying differences in the values of four economic variables relative to the values underlying CBO's February 2023 projections.
- Interactive
CBO’s Waterfall Model for Projecting Discretionary Spending, March 2023
CBO's interactive tool allows users to simulate the agency's process for projecting discretionary budget authority and outlays for different types of spending over the course of 10 years.
- Report
Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2023—Information for Legislation Enacted Through January 5, 2023
CBO reports annually on programs whose authorizations of appropriations have already expired or will expire. This information covers legislation enacted through January 5, 2023. A full report will be issued in the spring.
- Presentation
Assessing the Budgetary Implications of Economic Uncertainty With CBO’s Incomes Model and Budgetary Feedback Model
This slide deck outlines the models CBO uses to assess the budgetary effects of alternative economic scenarios such as those presented in CBO’s Current View of the Economy in 2023 and 2024 and the Budgetary Implications (November 2022).
- Report
Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2023—Information for Legislation Enacted Through September 30, 2022
CBO reports annually on programs whose authorizations of appropriations have already expired or will expire. This information covers legislation enacted through September 30, 2022. A full report will be issued later this year.
- Report
An Introduction to the Congressional Budget Office
Learn more about CBO, its work, and its processes in an introduction to the agency that is typically updated at the start of each Congress.
- Report
Army Corps of Engineers: Budgetary History and Projections
CBO examines trends in funding and spending for the Army Corps of Engineers and explains how CBO treats that agency’s activities in its baseline and cost estimates.
- Report
FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund: Budgetary History and Projections
CBO examines trends in funding and spending for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund and provides information about how CBO treats that program in its baseline and cost estimates.