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House Budget Committee presses CBO for independent audit, greater transparency
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Summary
Committee chair Jody Arrington and members from both parties pressed Congressional Budget Office Director Phil Swagel to accept an independent operational audit and publish more models and code; Swagel expressed support for scrutiny and said CBO will expand model publication where legally possible.
Chairman Jody Arrington urged an independent, holistic audit of the Congressional Budget Office on the grounds that external review would strengthen accountability and public confidence. "The price of greatness is accountability," Arrington said during opening remarks, pressing CBO to embrace outside evaluation of its methods and operations.
The request drew bipartisan backing during a lengthy oversight hearing in which members repeatedly cited recent high‑profile misses and asked CBO to make more of its models and code available. Arrington said an outside audit would help "cut through the politics" and give members greater confidence in CBO work. "I want a competent, independent assessment so that we can then be able to make market improvements," he said.
Director Phil Swagel said he supports scrutiny and was open to the chairman's proposed approach, while noting the details of any audit would matter. "I support scrutiny and transparency," Swagel said, adding that some work uses confidential data that cannot be publicly released but that CBO is increasing the amount of code and models it posts. Swagel told members the agency currently has six models on its public GitHub and plans to publish additional code (including a tariff model) "so that everyone can see what we're doing." He said confidential health and tax data constrain what can be released in full.
Members pressed for clarity on how CBO will expand access while protecting sensitive information. Several members asked for a timetable; Swagel pointed to a near‑term cadence of work and said more will be available when reconciliation pressures ease and staff capacity allows. He and the chairman said they were discussing how to structure independent review and who would set scope and selection criteria for auditors.
The committee also discussed procedural reforms long sought by members, including more frequent baseline updates and clearer account‑level information for appropriators. Swagel said CBO is producing additional materials — and reiterated that the agency will publish a comprehensive budget and economic outlook update in February that will include many reconciliation impacts.
Next steps: the chairman signaled he will pursue legislation and a committee‑level process to commission an independent audit if members cannot agree on a bipartisan selection process. Swagel committed to continuing to expand public model publication where legally feasible and to provide the committee additional materials and closed‑door details (for example, on a recent cybersecurity incident) that could not be disclosed in open session.
