CBO Director Phillip Swagel testifies before the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, March 18, 2026.
SUMMARY:
Chairman Valadao, Ranking Member Espaillat, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to present the Congressional Budget Office’s budget request. CBO requests appropriations of $76.3 million for fiscal year 2027. Most of that amount—85 percent—would be for pay and benefits; 11.7 percent would be for information technology (IT); and 3.3 percent would be for training, expert consultant services, office supplies, and other items. The requested amount is an increase of $1.5 million, or 2 percent, above the funding provided for this fiscal year.
The requested budget is based on continued strong interest in CBO’s work from the Congressional leadership, committees, and Members. For instance, in 2025, CBO supported Congress as it developed and considered the 2025 reconciliation act (Public Law 119-21). Specifically, the agency provided technical assistance, which, for example, kept committee markups on track. It also provided cost estimates and dynamic analysis incorporating economic effects and their feedback to the budget, which provided budgetary and economic information ahead of votes. Throughout, the agency responded promptly to the many separate requests for analysis that came from Members. Providing technical assistance, estimates, analysis, and reports to the 120th Congress as it considers significant legislative initiatives is expected to require additional resources.
The funding that CBO is requesting for fiscal year 2027 would also support efforts to strengthen the agency’s cybersecurity that began this year—including adding layers of security controls to CBO’s IT infrastructure, further strengthening identity and access controls, and improving continuous monitoring and incident response capabilities. In fall 2025, CBO was notified of unauthorized access to a subset of the agency’s emails. Working with security partners, CBO secured its IT environment and is now implementing recommendations to harden it against additional threats. To address the unexpected expenditures, CBO received $2.75 million above its original request for such activities for fiscal year 2026. In total, CBO expects to obligate more than $7.1 million for cybersecurity activities this year.
The added expenses for cybersecurity (even after accounting for the $2.75 million in additional resources) mean that CBO’s funding for other purposes will be flat this year. Because payroll costs will be larger in 2026 than they were in 2025, the agency will need to shrink to about 268 positions (from 274 on March 13, 2026) to absorb the additional costs.
The fiscal year 2027 request, which reflects an increase of $1.2 million (or 1.8 percent) for personnel expenses, would enable CBO to grow to 285 employees. That number would allow the agency to better meet its responsibilities under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. Of the 17 additional staff members CBO would hire in 2027, 6 of them would be for positions that the agency was not able to refill this year after departures. Of the 11 new staff members,
- 4 would improve CBO’s capabilities to provide timely analysis of changes to means-tested programs and defense programs;
- 1 would enhance the agency’s responsiveness and transparency related to cost estimates;
- 1 would improve the agency’s capabilities in dynamic analysis;
- 3 would enhance the agency’s cybersecurity and IT efforts; and
- 2 would support publishing and digital communications, namely, an addition to the editing staff to enhance the readability and accessibility of publications and an addition to the web development team.
For nonpersonnel expenses, CBO’s request includes an increase of $364,000 (or about 3 percent), mostly for IT equipment.
In total, CBO is requesting a 2 percent increase totaling $1.5 million. That constrained increase is possible because certain onetime expenditures for cybersecurity will not recur in 2027. The total amount that CBO plans to devote to cybersecurity activities would remain elevated but decline from the amount this year. In addition, certain personnel expenses, like contributions to the Federal Employee Retirement System, would decline in 2027.
COMPLETE REPORT OF TESTIMONY