The incoming Republican majorities in Congress have decided not to reappoint Douglas Elmendorf as director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, according to multiple reports.
The decision would mean that the Democrat-appointed Elmendorf would leave after his term expires in January, to be replaced by a Republican pick.
Generally parties pick their own directors of the CBO, which is responsible for publishing official economic and budget estimates for Congress and scoring the fiscal impact of legislation. Elmendorf, however, is viewed as an honest broker by many economists on the Left and Right, and some Republicans had favored him for another term.
Read the Washington Examiner’s 2009 profile of Douglas Elmendorf at this link.
U.S. News and World Report and Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources, that Republicans have decided to go with their own nominee.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to confirm that Republicans had reached a decision not to reappoint Elmendorf. The process regarding the CBO head is being led this year by House Republicans. Other offices involved in the decision did not immediately respond to inquiries. Neither did the CBO.
Some Republicans faulted Elmendorf for what they thought was a mistakenly favorable scoring of the spending impact of Obamacare when the healthcare legislation was being debated.
Members of the GOP also have suggested that it might be necessary to replace Elmendorf to change the CBO’s scoring methodology to include dynamic analysis. Dynamic analysis would reflect the macroeconomic changes that come from changes to taxes or spending in the official budget estimates.
Currently, the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, which scores tax legislation, assume that there will be no changes to economic growth from changes in taxes or spending, although they often present that information separately.
Incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price authored legislation last year to make dynamic analysis the default. Price, a Georgian, told reporters after the House left for the year that the decision relating to Elmendorf was an ongoing discussion among Republicans.
Elmendorf said last week at an appearance at a Washington think tank that it was “really up to” Congress to decide what role dynamic analysis would play in budget estimates.
