Weber Times

The House Budget Committee has passed Congressman Blake Moore’s Increasing Baseline Updates Act with a unanimous vote of 32-0. This bipartisan legislation mandates the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to produce at least two baseline updates annually, including one update featuring economic data. The aim is to ensure that Congress receives the most current information on budget and economic figures for informed decision-making in appropriations and other legislative processes. Congressman Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) co-introduced the bill with Moore.

“I appreciate my Budget colleagues’ unanimous support of the bipartisan Increasing Baseline Updates Act. This legislation will bolster Congress’s ability to make informed decisions about federal spending based on updated budget and economic figures,” said Congressman Moore. “Returning to regular order is critical to reversing Washington’s debt culture, and this bill is a common-sense step toward improving the way we conduct business.”

“This is another in a series of bipartisan, common-sense bills I have sponsored during the session. In the Budget Committee, we demonstrated that, by working together, Republicans and Democrats can still get results,” said Congressman Suozzi. “I was trained as a CPA; I am concerned about our budget and deficits. I know the importance of accuracy in budget estimates. If Congress and the public can get better data, we will be in a better position to fix our budgets. The latest CBO baseline anticipated that taxpayers will accumulate more than $22 trillion in deficit spending over the next ten years. If we are going to tackle our nation’s debt, we have to get serious about knowing where our problems are and what we can do to fix it.”

Under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, CBO must publish its baseline before February 15th each year. The baseline projects federal outlays and revenues under existing law for current and future fiscal years. While an annual baseline is required, there is no statutory obligation for CBO to provide a specific number of updates throughout the year, which are crucial for ongoing policymaking in Congress.

The last time CBO published a baseline update after July was in 2020, posing challenges since Congress often passes government funding bills late in the calendar year. Furthermore, CBO last published three baselines in one year back in 2019, leaving lawmakers with outdated fiscal information.

The Increasing Baseline Updates Act aims to address these issues by improving the budget process and returning to regular order.

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