Sen. Lee Introduces “CBO Show Your Work” Bill

August 4, 2017

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the “CBO Show Your Work” Act Thursday, legislation designed to improve the legislative process by making the Congressional Budget Office more transparent and accountable.                         

“Congress does need a scorekeeper to provide budgetary estimates for the policy changes it considers,” Sen. Lee said. “But at a bare minimum, that scorekeeper should be forced to show how its models work. Currently the CBO doesn’t have to do that.”

“That is why I have introduced the CBO Show Your Work Act of 2017,” Lee continued. “This bill would require the CBO to publish its data, models, and all details of computation used in its cost analysis and scoring. CBO would keep its role as official scorekeeper of congressional budget proposals – but now the American people and the economic community would be able to see what’s going on in all those spreadsheets and algorithms.”

The CBO Show Your Work Act of 2017 has 14 co-sponsors including, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Jim Inhofe (R-OK),  Ron Johnson (R-WI), James Lankford (R-OK), Rand Paul (R-KY), David Perdue (R-GA), Jim Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

The CBO Show Your Work Act of 2017 by Senator Mike Lee on Scribd