Concerns in DC Over Next CBO Director

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf’s four-year term at the helm of his agency will expire in January, raising the possibility that a new Republican Congress will decide to replace him, naming someone else to provide Congress with analysis of the fiscal effects of legislative proposals. While the identity of the CBO director may seem like an insignificant detail to most Americans, the prospect of a change at the top of the agency is causing a lot of heartburn among the community of budget specialists in Washington.

The worry is that, in an increasingly partisan Washington, Republicans might appoint an ideologue rather than someone who can be relied on to deliver objective analysis. The concern was voiced most prominently by former CBO Director Peter Orszag in an article published by Bloomberg Tuesday, in which he warned that a “party hack” would ruin the agency.

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