CBO Show Your Work Act
CBO Show Your Work Act
Plain Language Summary
# CBO Show Your Work Act Summary **What the bill does:** The CBO Show Your Work Act would require the Congressional Budget Office to publicly release the detailed methods, data, and computer models it uses when calculating how much proposed laws will cost and what economic effects they'll have. Essentially, it demands transparency so that Congress members, researchers, and the public can see and verify the CBO's math behind its estimates. For sensitive data that can't be fully disclosed, the bill requires the CBO to at least publish lists of what data was used and basic statistics about it. **Who it affects:** This primarily impacts the Congressional Budget Office itself (which would need to share more information) and members of Congress (who would have access to more detailed information when debating bills).
Researchers, think tanks, and the general public would also benefit from being able to review the CBO's reasoning and potentially challenge or replicate their findings. **Current status:** The bill is currently in committee (HR 724, sponsored by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-OH), meaning it hasn't been voted on by the full House yet. The goal appears to be increasing accountability and transparency in how the government evaluates the financial impact of proposed legislation.
CRS Official Summary
CBO Show Your Work Act This bill requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to make available to Congress and the public each fiscal model, policy model, and data preparation routine that the CBO uses to estimate the costs and other fiscal, social, or economic effects of legislation. For each estimate of the costs and other fiscal effects of legislation, the CBO must also disclose, in a manner sufficient to permit replication by individuals not employed by the CBO, the data, programs, models, assumptions, and other details of the computations used to prepare the estimate. For data that may not be disclosed, the CBO must make available to Congress and the public a complete list of all data variables for the data; descriptive statistics for all data variables for the data, to the extent that the descriptive statistics do not violate the rule against disclosure; a reference to the statute requiring that the data not be disclosed; and contact information for the individual or entity who has unrestricted access to the data.
Latest Action
Referred to the House Committee on the Budget.