Khanna, Jayapal, Warren, Bennet, Reintroduce CBO FAIR Scoring Act

Would allow legislators to formally consider the impacts of bills on people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and design policies that more effectively advance racial and economic equity.

Washington, D.C. - Representatives Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) along with United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) reintroduced the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Fiscal Analysis by Income and Race (FAIR) Scoring Act. This legislation seeks to provide policymakers with standardized data about the real-world effects of their policies across race and income groups.

The CBO is required by law to produce a formal cost estimate - describing how a legislative proposal would affect the federal budget over a 10-year window - for nearly every bill that is approved by a full committee in the House or Senate. While these cost estimates provide insight into the fiscal impact of proposed legislation, lawmakers have limited information about the distributional impacts across racial and income groups. The lack of reliable information about the potential socioeconomic effects of legislation inhibits the understanding of how policies are impacting income gaps and racial disparities, including if the policies are making the disparities worse or improving them. It also undermines lawmakers' ability to design effective policies that address racial and income inequality and support vulnerable communities.

"We must do more to close the wealth gap in America that continues to widen across race and income," said Senator Warren. "This bill is a first step towards that end by providing lawmakers with the data they need to make informed decisions to advance racial and economic justice in future legislation."

"Our country suffers from enormous income and wealth inequality, and too often legislation fails to account for how policy changes affect all Americans," said Senator Bennet. "The FAIR Scoring Act will ensure there is objective, non-partisan information on how the effects of legislation will be distributed by income and race to better inform lawmakers and the American people."

"As wealth inequality becomes one of the greatest challenges facing the US today, I am proud to partner with Sen. Warren (D-MA) on the FAIR Scoring Act. Our bill standardizes the legislative scoring system and ensures that legislators consider a bill's impact on various socioeconomic groups. It is an important step to promoting strong, equitable, growth in the 21st century economy," said Rep. Ro Khanna

"When legislation is proposed, it is critical that we know all of the impacts of it, including on people who have been disadvantaged as a result of years of damaging policies," said Representative Jayapal. "While the CBO currently scores the financial impacts, that leaves major question marks around what communities are affected. I'm proud to co-lead this legislation that will help to ensure racial, gender, and economic justice is considered in introduced bills before they become law."

The CBO FAIR Scoring Act would:

• Require the CBO to estimate the distributional impacts by race and income - in dollar terms and as a percent change in after-tax-and-transfer-income - for bills that have a gross budgetary effect of at least 0.1% of GDP in any fiscal year within the 10-year budget window;
• Require the CBO to provide such scores to relevant congressional committees before the bills are reported to the floor, to the extent possible;
• Require the CBO to prepare a report describing possible methods for conducting distributional analyses by gender to strengthen CBO's capacity to conduct analyses of the interaction between race and gender.

The CBO FAIR Scoring Act has been endorsed by The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Our Revolution, Indivisible, Coalition on Human Needs.

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