05.19.15

Enzi: CBO Should Focus on Clarifying Mission, Improving OperationsEnzi: CBO Should Focus on Clarifying Mission, Improving Operations

Committee Convenes 1st Oversight Hearing in 33 Years

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, wants the Congressional source for budget and economic information to remain reliable and focused. To help ensure this, Enzi called the first oversight hearing of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) since 1982 and said oversight of CBO should focus on clarifying the office’s mission and improving its operations.

“The goal of our oversight is to assure the rest of Congress that this vital organization is operating with excellent management practices in place,” said Chairman Enzi.  “There is no partisan divide when it comes to ensuring that CBO be the best analytical organization possible in Washington.”

Chairman Enzi noted that while the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 clearly provides the authority to hold such hearings, research indicates that the Committee only executed this responsibility for several years after CBO’s founding in 1975. Specifically, the Committee held oversight hearings in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1982. These hearings examined the agency’s operations, staff travel, models, outside contracts, and other aspects of CBO’s work. 

“The Senate Budget Committee will be focused on such fundamental management policies as the existence and growth of its disclosure and transparency, the role of its advisory panels, the implementation of its conflict of interest policy, its personnel retention and succession planning policies, and the office’s continuity of operation practice,” Chairman Enzi said.  “Pursuing these goals for an organization that already owns a high reputation should assure everyone who cherishes CBO that this Committee has its best interests in mind and that going forward, CBO builds on a solid foundation from its first 40 years, with oversight from the Senate Budget Committee.”

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