{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2006", "Rep. Ralph Norman Introduces the Congressional Budget Office Oversight Act", "2024-09-26", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "House", "SC", "Ralph Norman", "N000190", "norman.house.gov", "norman", "https://norman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office Oversight Act introduced by Rep. Ralph Norman (SC-05), Rep. Lisa McClain (MI-09), and Rep. Greg Lopez (CO-04) passed the House Budget Committee by a vote of 21-12. This legislation would mandate the Congressional Budget Office director to provide testimony before Congressional Budget Committees no less than twice per year.\n\nBackground\n\nThe Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is non-partisan and conducts independent analyses of budget and economic impacts of proposed legislation.\n\nCongressional Budget Committees in the House and Senate have sole jurisdiction over the CBO but neither are required to hold regular oversight hearings. Over the last decade, the Senate Budget Committee held five CBO oversight hearings while the House Budget Committee held eight. The last attempt for reform of these oversight hearings was in 2018.\n\nThe Congressional Budget Office Oversight Act resolves this issue by requiring the CBO Director to testify before Congressional Budget Committees at least twice in a calendar year. This would allow Congress to review the accuracy of baseline projections and estimates prepared by the CBO, as well as any issues the Committees deem appropriate. Chairmen of the Budget Committees can often change and thus priorities within the committees change as well. The Congressional Budget Office Oversight Act will ensure the long-term stability of the CBO Director appearing regularly leading to a more educated Committee and broader conference.\n\nStatements\n\n\"Perhaps the greatest threat to the future of this country is our outrageous debt of $35 trillion and counting.\" said Rep. Ralph Norman. \"If we are serious about getting our fiscal house in order, it begins with the director of the CBO appearing regularly. It is the bare minimum we can require of the CBO - the more oversight the better.\"\n\n\"As we make spending decisions, it\u2019s vital we have unbiased, accurate information and constant participation from the Congressional Budget Office,\u201d said Rep. Lisa McClain. \u201cWe must be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and that starts with holding the CBO responsible as Congress\u2019s chief budgetary analyst. Government agencies are answerable to the American people, and I will always fight for greater accountability.\"", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://norman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2006"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9997659362852573, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}