CBO director responds to complaints about farm bill slowness

Responding to a letter from House and Senate Agriculture committee leaders complaining that the Congressional Budget Office has been slow in responding to requests for scores on farm bill provisions, CBO Director Phillip Swagel wrote back this week that the agency has already responded to more than 1,000 requests and expects to respond to hundreds more in the coming weeks.

In the letter the leaders sent to Swagel and leaders of the congressional committees in charge of the budget office, they wrote, “We strongly encourage the Senate and House Budget Committees and CBO to use all available resources and authorities to ensure CBO can reorganize staff to prioritize farm bill requests, hire or contract additional staff, or find available qualified professionals who can be assigned on detail. To avoid further delays, any new hires or detailees should have relevant technical expertise and experience in scoring commodity, conservation, and nutrition program legislation.”

But Swagel said, “Securing additional personnel from outside the agency to work on the farm bill is not practical at this point, as it would delay work on the current legislation because of the time it would take to bring new people up to speed on CBO’s estimating models and procedures.”