House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders recently sent a letter to the Congressional Budget Office complaining about the slow response to their requests for scores on farm bill provisions. CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a letter that they have already responded to more than 1,000 requests, and they expect to respond to hundreds more in the weeks ahead.
The Fencepost says the leaders’ letter strongly encouraged the Budget Committees in both Chambers of Congress to use all their available resources to reorganize the CBO staff to prioritize farm bill requests. They also encouraged the office to hire or contract additional staff or find qualified professionals outside the agency to help.
However, Swagel says, “Securing additional personnel from outside the agency isn’t practical at this point as it would delay work on the current legislation. It would take too much time to bring them up to speed on CBO’s procedures.”
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