Current Level Estimate in the United States

Current Level Estimate in the Federal Budget Process

Meaning of Current Level Estimate in the congressional and executive budget processes (GAO source): An estimate of the amounts of new budget authority, outlays, and revenues for a full fiscal year, based upon enacted law. Current level estimates used by Congress do not take into account the potential effects of pending legislation. Current level estimates include a tabulation comparing estimates with the aggregates approved in the most recent budget resolution, and they are consistent with the technical and economic assumptions in that resolution. This means that the current level is not only compared to the resolution, but the current level estimate’s framework is consistent with the resolution. Section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended (2 U.S.C. § 639(b)), requires the House and Senate Budget Committees to make this tabulation at least once a month. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assists these committees by regularly submitting reports of the budgetary impact of congressional actions. (See also Budget Authority; Committee Allocation; Congressional Budget Act; Scorekeeping.)

Resources

See Also

• Federal Appropriations
• Entries about the United States Budget Process in the Encyclopedia (including Current Level Estimate)
• Public Debt

Further Reading

• Legislatures and the budget process: the myth of fiscal control

  (J Wehner, 2010)

• Reconcilable Differences?: Congress, the Budget Process, and the Deficit (JB Gilmour, 1990)
• Fiscal institutions and fiscal performance

  (JM Poterba, J von Hagen, 2008)