1. Who are the key stakeholders of the Congressional Budget Office? The key stakeholders of the Congressional Budget Office in the broadest sense are the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. More specifically, stakeholders are the individual members of Congress who instruct the Congressional Budget Office (the CBO) to prepare reports or forecasts. The most important stakeholders of the CBO are the Congressional leaders of the Democratic and the Republican parties. The CBO must meet needs of these leaders in order for Congress to view the CBO as effective. Other stakeholders with a vested interest in the activities of the CBO are the American people. 2. What is the main issue of conflict between the stakeholders? The main issue of conflict between the CBO's primary customers, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate initially involves the size and scope of the duties that they assign to the CBO. When the CBO was formed, the House of Representatives wanted a small CBO. The House envisioned that the CBO would complete only the work assigned to it by the House and Senate. The House wanted a CBO that would look to the Congress for guidance about what tasks it would perform, and expected the CBO not to exceed a narrow mandate defined for it in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
In contrast, the U.S. Senate imagined a much broader role for the CBO. The Senate pictured an agency that would have a broad mandate. The Senate felt that the C
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