Cost Estimates Improvement Act

Core Policy Mechanism Top 1

Require Debt Servicing Costs in Federal Budget Estimates

Requires that official cost estimates for legislation include the cost of paying interest on the national debt. This changes what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) must disclose when scoring a bill's fiscal impact.

• Population Scope Low Directly binds only the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), two federal entities, not the broader public.
• Budgetary Magnitude Low No funds are authorized, appropriated, or obligated by this provision; it imposes a disclosure requirement, not a spending or revenue change.
• Legal / Regulatory Depth Medium Creates a new statutory duty on CBO and JCT to expand the content of their official estimates, binding agency procedure rather than altering substantive rights or prohibitions across the regulated population.
• Degree of Discretion Granted Medium The 'to the extent practicable' qualifier gives CBO and JCT meaningful judgment over when and how to calculate debt servicing costs, softening an otherwise mandatory 'shall' command.
• Implementation & Enforcement Burden Low No new enforcement infrastructure, penalties, or compliance mechanisms are created; the obligation falls entirely on two existing federal entities within their normal operations.
• Temporal Commitment High Codified as a permanent amendment to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, it persists indefinitely until Congress affirmatively acts to repeal it.