Order Code 98-560 GOV
Updated December 8, 2006
Baselines and Scorekeeping in
the Federal Budget Process
Bill Heniff Jr.
Analyst in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Baselines and scorekeeping are an integral part of the federal budget process,
providing Congress and the President with a framework for making and enforcing
budgetary decisions. A baseline serves as a benchmark for federal budget decisions.
While the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) create different baselines, their baselines project federal spending, revenue,
and budget surplus or deficit amounts that would occur if existing budget policies were
left unchanged. Scorekeeping is the process by which the budgetary impact of proposed
and enacted budget policies is measured; it assists Congress and the President in making
and enforcing budgetary decisions. For more information on budget process, see
[http://www.crs.gov/products/guides/guidehome.shtml].
Baselines
A baseline is an estimate of federal spending and receipts during a fiscal year under
existing policies. Congress set forth in law specific rules for calculating the direct
spending, receipts, and discretionary spending baselines in Section 257 of the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Title II of P.L. 99-177), as amended.
Direct spending and receipts are assumed to continue at the level prescribed by existing
law. These projections are based upon economic assumptions (e.g., economic growth,
inflation, and unemployment) and other technical assumptions (e.g., demographic and
workload changes) about future years. Discretionary spending is assumed to continue at
the level of the current year’s spending level adjusted “sequentially and cumulatively” for
inflation and other factors.
A baseline provides a benchmark for comparing proposed budget policy changes to
existing policies and indicating changes that may be necessary to meet certain budget
policy goals. Therefore, the calculation of a baseline can be instrumental to the evaluation
of budget policies. There are two baselines commonly cited in the federal budget process:
the current services estimates calculated by OMB and the budget baseline projections
calculated by CBO. Each generally follows the rules set forth in Section 257 of the
Deficit Control Act of 1985, as described above. However, OMB and CBO make their
own economic and technical assumptions, reflecting different projections about future
economic and program performance. Thus, the estimated levels of spending and revenues
may differ between the current services estimates and the budget baseline projections.

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Scorekeeping
Scorekeeping is the process of measuring the budgetary effects of pending and
enacted legislation against the baseline. The process allows Congress to compare
proposed budget policy changes to existing law and to enforce spending and revenue
levels agreed upon in the budget resolution.
In the congressional budget process, scorekeeping is the responsibility of the House
and Senate Budget Committees, acting with the assistance of CBO. Section 308(b) of the
1974 Congressional Budget Act (CBA) requires the Budget Committees to make
available, to their respective chambers, monthly summary scorekeeping reports on the
current status of congressional budget actions. Section 308(a) of the CBA requires that
any measure reported by a committee include estimates of the budgetary impact of the
proposed legislation. These estimates, usually in the form of a statement in the
accompanying committee report or published separately in the Congressional Record, are
calculated by CBO. For revenue measures, CBO is required to rely on estimates provided
by the Joint Committee on Taxation (Section 201(f) of the CBA).
Generally, scorekeeping is used to determine whether or not proposed legislation
violates the budget resolution levels. Under the CBA, any measure that violates the
aggregate spending and revenue levels of the most recently passed budget resolution or
the subsequent committee allocation levels generally is subject to a point of order.
Section 312 of the CBA requires that the determination of such violations be based on
estimates made by the House and Senate Budget Committees. In addition, estimates
provided by the Budget Committees must be used to determine committee compliance
with reconciliation directives and which amendments to a reconciliation measure would
be in order.
To minimize any scorekeeping differences between the House and Senate Budget
Committees, OMB, and CBO, some of the key scorekeeping guidelines currently in use
were set forth in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the conference report to
the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (H.Rept. 105-217, pp. 1007-1014). These guidelines
generally reflect the standard scorekeeping practices used since the Budget Enforcement
Act of 1990 (Title XIII of P.L. 101-508). The scorekeeping guidelines are reviewed
periodically to ensure they are consistent with the CBA of 1974, as amended, and the
Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended. Any changes to these guidelines must be agreed
to by the House and Senate Budget Committees, OMB, and CBO.

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