[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 109 (Thursday, July 19, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H5019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1050
                          CBO TRANSPARENCY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Murphy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Remember back in school when your math 
teacher expected you to show your work when solving a problem? It made 
sense. A number on a page, even if it was the correct answer, didn't 
suffice because your teacher wanted you to demonstrate you knew how to 
solve the problem. There, the outcome was a grade on a quiz or a test. 
But what about when we're talking about hundreds of billions or 
trillions of dollars? Why is it we take on blind faith the cost 
estimates produced by one of the most influential accounting firms in 
the United States, the Congressional Budget Office.
  In 1974, the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, was formed to give 
Congress independent, nonpartisan, objective analysis of legislation. 
In addition, the CBO is required by law to produce a cost estimate--or 
``score''--for every bill coming out of committee of either Chamber of 
Congress. It sounds good in theory, but the problem is no one knows how 
CBO arrives at their numbers--and they won't tell us. They don't have 
to. CBO is not required to ``show their work,'' like we were required 
in school, when announcing economic impact results.
  Members of Congress rely on the CBO score. A favorable or a budget-
neutral score makes a difference for a bill's success or failure. If 
there are savings, chances are better that the bill will get a vote on 
the floor. If it's budget-neutral, it may still get a vote. But what 
happens if the analysis was wrong and turns out to lead to big 
deficits, or what if Congress failed to call up a bill for a vote 
because CBO scored it as deficit spending when really it could lead to 
substantial savings?
  The price of an inaccurate estimate right now is extremely high. Our 
national debt is closing in on $16 trillion. Major safety net programs 
like Medicare and Medicaid are heading for bankruptcy. Congress has to 
act to bring our country back from the brink of a fiscal cliff. It is 
crucial for policymakers to have all available information about the 
true cost of legislation. And that's why I introduced H.R. 6136, the 
CBO Transparency Act, so lawmakers and the public have an opportunity 
to review CBO's work.
  Today, you can access information on hospital visits, crop yields, 
and air quality levels, which are used to produce major regulation by 
the EPA and others. But you can't find out how the CBO scored things. 
Like any scientific study, opening up the details of a CBO analysis for 
greater inspection and peer review will enable us to better understand 
how decisions are made.
  This bill isn't about pointing out inaccuracies in CBO's estimates. 
What we're doing here is using transparency to enhance the credibility 
of the Congressional Budget Office. Once the information is out there, 
it can be reviewed by Congress and all Americans. Is the information 
correct? Do they consider all the facts? Was something left out? Was 
their analysis done right?
  In 2009, a University of Chicago researcher revealed a CBO office had 
grossly underestimated potential savings from changes to Medicare and 
Medicaid. For instance, CBO overestimated the cost of Medicare part D 
by 40 percent. In the 1980s, CBO predicted spending on hospitals stays 
under new law would be $19 million more expensive than the actual cost. 
Congress changed Medicare to pay hospitals a fixed amount per 
admission. This encouraged shorter stays, led to fewer diagnostic 
services, and lowered administrative costs. But CBO didn't predict 
that, and by 1986 actual spending for hospital payments was 18 percent 
lower than estimated.
  The CBO also estimated that if hospitals reported infection rates, it 
would cost about $30 million over 5 years. It turns out when they 
report infection rates, they pay attention to it. And the savings has 
been billions of dollars over 5 years and tens of thousands of lives. 
When the CBO says the stimulus saved 3.3 million jobs or tax rates 
don't impact decisions by individuals or businesses or that cutting 
spending will slow economic growth, we currently have no way of 
understanding the conclusions CBO has reached because we can't get 
information on how they got there.
  Ultimately, the decisions we make in Congress are only as good as the 
data upon which they are based. I hope all my colleagues will join me 
in this effort. Transparency is a cornerstone of sound government. I 
urge Democrats and Republicans to sign on to this bipartisan good 
government bill, H.R. 6136, the CBO Transparency Act.

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