The Congressional Budget Office
Summary
Congress's own cost estimator, funded at $74.75 million and about 275 staff in FY2026, is required by law to score nearly every bill a House or Senate committee reports -- the Good Citizen series' entry on the office whose numbers decide what a bill is allowed to cost.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
's central job is scoring: the Budget Act requires it to estimate the cost⧉ of nearly every bill a House or Senate committee reports. publishes 600 to 800 cost estimates⧉ a year for bills ordered reported to Congress, plus about 350 more for bills the House considers under suspension of the rules, while fulfilling thousands of technical-assistance requests and preparing dozens of reports⧉ -- led by its annual Budget and Economic Outlook. In 2025, and the Joint Committee on Taxation jointly scored the reconciliation act, H.R. 1⧉, adding dynamic effects after it passed the House.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $74.75 million⧉ for 's FY2026 salaries and expenses -- $4.75 million above FY2025's $70.0 million⧉, but $1.05 million short of the $75.8 million CBO requested⧉ to add 15 staff and shore up cybersecurity. says it has about 275 staff members⧉, mostly economists and policy analysts with advanced degrees. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, that works out to about $0.22 per person.
View data as table
| FY2025 enacted | 70 | baseline year |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 requested | 75.8 | CBO's ask: 15 more staff, cybersecurity/IT |
| FY2026 enacted | 74.8 | $1.05M below the request |
Why is it good for society?
The requirement that -- not the White House's own budget office -- estimate what a bill costs⧉ before Congress can act on it means lawmakers vote on a nonpartisan number, not only a figure from whichever party controls the executive branch. Congress then uses those estimates for budget enforcement purposes⧉ -- checking whether a bill fits inside the spending and revenue limits the Budget Committees set. Before 1974, Congress had no such office and leaned on the President's own budget estimates; that imbalance is what the Budget Act was written to fix.
- 's FY2026 enacted appropriation ($74.75M) is about 98.6% of what requested ($75.8M) -- and $4.75M above FY2025's $70.0M.
- 's roughly 275 staff score 600-800-plus bills a year plus about 350 more suspension-rule estimates -- a nonpartisan number required before Congress can act on nearly any bill with a price tag.
Your handles.* Every published estimate is public -- browse CBO's Cost Estimates page to see how a bill now moving through Congress was scored. can only take on work Congress asks for, so if you want a specific bill reviewed, the lever is your own Representative or Senator -- ask their office to request it. To see new reports and estimates as they post, sign up for email updates⧉.
Sources(9) ▾
- U.S. House Office of the Legislative Counsel / U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344), compiled text (2024-09-30) — GPO's current compiled text of the 1974 Budget Act -- Title II establishes and sets the Director's appointment method and term (Sec. 201); Title IV, Sec. 402 is the statutory mandate that estimate the cost of nearly every bill a House or Senate committee reports. Direct govinfo.gov fetch succeeded (not Akamai-blocked, unlike cbo.gov). govinfo.gov · original document
- 119th Congress / U.S. Government Publishing Office, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2026 (Division C of H.R. 5371, enacted as Public Law 119-37) -- engrossed Senate amendment text (2025-11-12) — The enacted FY2026 appropriations text (P.L. 119-37, signed November 12, 2025); the 'CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE -- SALARIES AND EXPENSES' line item gives the enacted dollar figure this entry's budget KPI is built on. Direct govinfo.gov fetch succeeded. govinfo.gov · original document
- U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senate Report 119-38 -- Legislative Branch Appropriations, 2026 (2025-07-31) — The Senate Appropriations Committee's FY2026 report on 's line item -- gives the FY2025 enacted appropriation ($70,000,000) this entry's budget KPI is compared against. Direct govinfo.gov fetch succeeded. govinfo.gov · original document
- Congressional Budget Office, The Congressional Budget Office's Request for Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026 (2025-04-01) — 's own FY2026 budget justification: the $75.8 million request, its 2024 workload total, and 2025/2026 staffing figures. cbo.gov blocks direct fetch (Akamai; HTTP 403) -- captured via Wayback and PDF-extracted for this entry. cbo.gov · original document
- Congressional Budget Office, Organization and Staffing | Congressional Budget Office (2026-06-16) — 's own current staffing statement ('about 275 staff members') and hiring/appointment rules -- this entry's People KPI. cbo.gov blocks direct fetch; captured via Wayback (June 16, 2026 snapshot). cbo.gov · original document
- Congressional Budget Office, Introduction to CBO | Congressional Budget Office (2026-07-11) — 's own mission statement and annual-output summary ('thousands of requests for technical assistance,' 'hundreds of cost estimates,' 'dozens of reports'). cbo.gov blocks direct fetch; captured via Wayback (July 11, 2026 snapshot). cbo.gov · original document
- Congressional Budget Office, Frequently Asked Questions About CBO's Cost Estimates | Congressional Budget Office (2026-05-14) — 's own count of cost estimates produced annually, for bills ordered reported plus House suspension-of-the-rules bills. cbo.gov blocks direct fetch; captured via Wayback (May 14, 2026 snapshot). cbo.gov · original document
- Congressional Budget Office, Frequently Asked Questions | Congressional Budget Office (2026-06-16) — 's own general FAQ page -- the 'Does do dynamic analysis?' answer describes and jointly scoring the 2025 reconciliation act (H.R. 1) with dynamic analysis after House passage. cbo.gov blocks direct fetch; captured via Wayback (June 16, 2026 snapshot). (Corrected in blind self-verification: this quote is on the general FAQ page, not the cost-estimates FAQ subpage -- an earlier draft misattributed it.) cbo.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. Same sealed capture cited by good-citizen-gao. census.gov · original document
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The Congressional Budget Office is Congress's own cost estimator, established as an office of Congress⧉ by Title II of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344) -- the same law that gave Congress its own Budget Committees, so lawmakers would no longer depend solely on the White House's budget office for cost figures. 's Director is appointed jointly by the House Speaker and the Senate's President pro tempore⧉ to a four-year term, chosen without regard to political affiliation.