Official Summaries

Replacing Exploitative Partisan Estimates with Alternatives by Liquidating Congressional Budget Office Requirements or the REPEAL CBO Requirements Act

This bill allows certain congressional committees to obtain cost estimates for legislation from private reputable accounting firms rather than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Under current law, CBO is generally required to produce cost estimates for most bills that are reported by congressional committees. This bill allows chairs of congressional committees (except the appropriations committees) to obtain estimates for reported legislation from a private reputable accounting firm instead of CBO. Under the bill, a private reputable accounting firm means any of the 10 public accounting firms registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board with the largest net revenue during the previous year.

If a committee chair obtains an estimate from a private accounting firm pursuant to this bill, (1) the estimate must be used for budget enforcement purposes, and (2) CBO may not prepare an estimate for the applicable measure.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2524 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2524

 To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 
  to provide that Congress may request estimates of legislation from 
reputable accounting firms for purposes of budget enforcement, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 31, 2025

Ms. Tenney (for herself and Mr. Collins) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the 
Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 
  to provide that Congress may request estimates of legislation from 
reputable accounting firms for purposes of budget enforcement, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Replacing Exploitative Partisan 
Estimates with Alternatives by Liquidating Congressional Budget Office 
Requirements'' or the ``REPEAL CBO Requirements Act''.

SEC. 2. BUDGET ESTIMATES BY REPUTABLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS.

    (a) In General.--Section 402 of the Congressional Budget and 
Impoundment Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 653) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The Director'' and inserting ``(a) in 
        general.--The Director''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(b) Estimate by accounting firms.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Notwithstanding any other 
                provision of law, the chair of any committee of the 
                House of Representatives or the Senate (except the 
                Committee on Appropriations of each House) may, instead 
                of an estimate under subsection (a), obtain an estimate 
                for any bill or resolution of a public character 
                reported by such committee from a private reputable 
                accounting firm.
                    ``(B) Application.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Any estimate obtained 
                        under subparagraph (A) shall be used in lieu of 
                        an estimate prepared by the Congressional 
                        Budget Office under subsection (a) for budget 
                        enforcement with respect to the applicable bill 
                        or joint resolution, including for purposes of 
                        this Act, the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
                        Deficit Control Act of 1985, the Statutory Pay-
                        As-You-Go Act of 2010, any concurrent 
                        resolution on the budget, the Rules of the 
                        House of Representatives, and the Standing 
                        Rules of the Senate (including for purposes of 
                        reconciliation).
                            ``(ii) CBO estimate not required.--If an 
                        estimate is obtained under subparagraph (A), 
                        then the Office shall not prepare an estimate 
                        for the applicable measure under subsection 
                        (a).
                    ``(C) Definition of private reputable accounting 
                firm.--In this subsection, the term `private reputable 
                accounting firm' means any of the ten public accounting 
                firms registered with the Public Company Accounting 
                Oversight Board with the largest net revenue during the 
                previous year.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 312(a) of such Act is amended by 
adding at the end the following: ``The estimates by a private reputable 
accounting firm under section 402(b) may be used by either such 
Committee for purposes of carrying out this subsection.''.
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