Congressional Budget Office - Mission

Mission

The CBO's mandate is to provide Congress with:

• Objective, nonpartisan, and timely analysis to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on a wide array of programs covered by the federal budget;
• And the information and estimates required by the Congressional budget process. The models produced by CBO in recent times have been called into questions to their basis by government critics.

With respect to estimating spending for Congress, the Congressional Budget Office serves a purpose parallel to that of the Joint Committee on Taxation for estimating revenue for Congress, the Department of the Treasury for estimating revenues for the Executive and estimates required for the Congressional budget process. This includes projections on the effect on national debt and cost estimates for legislation.