 | |
| Abbreviation | CRFB |
|---|---|
| Formation | June 10, 1981; 44 years ago (1981-06-10) |
| Type | Public policythink tank |
| 52-1231278 | |
| Purpose | Federal deficit reduction |
| Headquarters | 1025 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036 |
| Location |
|
| Maya MacGuineas | |
| Revenue | $4,137,343[1] (2023) |
| Expenses | $4,941,731[1] (2023) |
| Website | crfb |
TheCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is anonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization andthink tank headquartered inWashington, D.C., which advocates forpublic policy to reduce thefederal budget deficit and lowergovernment spending. The CRFB describes itself as "nonpartisan", as do many media outlets.[2][3][4]The New York Times, more descriptively, said that the CFRB is a "centrist business-supported group dedicated to lower deficits".[5]
It was founded in 1981 by formerUnited States RepresentativeRobert Giaimo (D-CT) andUnited States SenatorHenry Bellmon (R-OK),[2] and its board of directors includes past heads of theHouseand Senate Budget Committees, theCongressional Budget Office, theOffice of Management and Budget, and theGovernment Accountability Office.[6]
The organization was founded by former representative and chair of theHouse Budget CommitteeRobert Giaimo (D-CT) and former senator andranking member of theSenate Budget Committee memberHenry Bellmon (R-OK) on June 10, 1981. After leavingCongress, the two created the CFRB with members including other former Budget Committee chairmen, former directors of theOffice of Management and Budget, economists, and businessmen.[2]
In the 1990s the CRFB formed the Cost Containment Coalition, led by then-president Carol Cox Wait. Paul Blumenthal and Ryan Grim inHuffPost criticized the CRFB for receiving funding fromPhilip Morris, a multi-national tobacco company, and theTobacco Institute during this period. Cox Wait was also criticized for her personal connections to Philip Morris, as she was a "corporate affairs consultant" for the company and was married to Philip Morris vice president Bob Wait. An "inter-office correspondence" memo says that the Coalition was thought up by employees at Philip Morris but was going to be formed "under the auspices of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget," and that its purpose was to take "the focus away from excise taxes."[7] The Coalitionlobbied against anexcise tax on tobacco under consideration by theClinton administration.[8]
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From 2004 through 2013,[citation needed] the CRFB was based at theNew America Foundation, a non-profitpublic policythink tank based in Washington D.C.Maya MacGuineas, president of CRFB, was the program director of New America's Fiscal Policy Program,[9] and most of CRFB's staff were also co-appointed to positions at New America. As of January 2014 the organization no longer has ties with the New America Foundation.[citation needed]
In 2008, the organization received a grant from thePew Charitable Trusts to raise the public understanding of important fiscal matters facing the country during the2008 presidential election.[citation needed] This project, called US Budget Watch, was also tasked with tracking the candidates’ tax and spending promises both during and after the election. The project has continued to release reports in subsequent presidential elections.[10][11]
In late 2008, CRFB received support fromThe Peter G. Peterson Foundation and thePew Charitable Trusts to create a new commission that would explore options for reforming the federalbudget process, the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform.[12] The Commission released its initial report, "Red Ink Rising," in December 2009[13] and its second report, "Getting Back in the Black," in November 2010.[14]
In early 2009, CRFB unveiled Stimulus.org, adatabase which tracked the spending and deficit impact of all major government actions taken due to the2008 financial crisis.[15] On the April 5, 2009 edition of CBS’Face the Nation, hostBob Schieffer used figures from CRFB's "Stimulus Watch" chart while questioning Treasury SecretaryTimothy Geithner about the amount ofTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds that remained unspent.[16]
In 2009, CRFB's "Fiscal Roadmap Project" was launched. The Project outlined how the U.S. could move from stabilizing the economy during the 2008 financial crisis to addressing its long-term fiscal problems. The ultimate goal of the Project was to show howpolicymakers could eventually put the country in what CRFB regarded as a sounder fiscal position.[17] The project released at least two long analyses, one ondeficits[18][citation needed] and another on the activities of theFederal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis.[19] The Fiscal Roadmap Project was originally directed by Anne Vorce, former U.S.economic expert for theEuropean Commission.[citation needed]
In early 2011, former fiscal commission co-chairsErskine Bowles andAlan Simpson launched the Moment of Truth Project, with the intent "to foster honest discussion about the nation's fiscal challenges" through "public education, Congressional outreach, and technical and policy analysis."[20][21]
CRFB launched the Go Big Initiative afterThe Budget Control Act of 2011 tasked a bipartisan 12-memberJoint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction with finding an additional $1.5 trillion indeficit reduction. For this reason, CRFB launched "Go Big" in an effort to urge the Joint Congressional Committee to exceed its savings mandate of $1.5 trillion and enact abipartisan, comprehensive fiscal reform plan.[22][23]
In 2014, The Better Budget Process Initiative was created to fix the "broken"budget process by "increasing focus the on long-term fiscal outlook, improving the process for dealing with thedebt limit, strengtheningstatutory budget enforcement, revising the content and structure of the budget resolution, moving to biennial budgeting, and addressing treatment oftax expenditures in the budget process." Publications produced by the initiative include principles for a budget resolution and budget baseline reforms.[24]
The Campaign to Fix the Debt was launched in July 2012, and has advocated fordeficit reduction (including cuts toSocial Security andMedicare) andtax reform to avoid afiscal cliff. In 2012, formerDemocratErskine Bowles and formerRepublicanSenatorAlan Simpson served as co-chairs, while former Pennsylvania GovernorEd Rendell and former senatorJudd Gregg served as steering committee co-chairs.[25][26][27]
The McCrery-Pomeroy SSDI Solutions Initiative was launched in 2014 to identify "practical policy changes to improve theSocial Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and other policies forpeople with disabilities." It was co-chaired by formerCongressmenEarl Pomeroy (D-ND) andJim McCrery (R-LA), both former chairmen of theHouse Ways & Means Social Security Subcommittee. The initiative published a book,SSDI Solutions: Ideas to Strengthen the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, in 2016 based on papers commissioned from various policy experts. It published several more commissioned papers in 2018 and 2019.[28]
In 2020, FixUS was launched as an initiative of theFix the Debt Campaign. According to its website: "FixUS is a group of Americans united in shared concern over the divided state of our country. We believe that healing these divisions is our highest national priority, and essential to preparing our nation to face the defining challenges of the 21st century."[29] FixUS conducted a national Roadshow and Listening Tour to discuss the national debt as well as partisan divisions, and produced a report on its findings.[30][31][32]
U.S. representativeJared Golden (D-ME2nd) worked with the CRFB and theTax Foundation on a compromise plan with balanced spending cuts and tax increases as the nation'sdebt neared its statutory ceiling in mid-2023. Golden's eight-page proposal did not attract any support from otherHouse members publicly.[33]
The committee's first president was Carol Cox Wait,[citation needed] who served until 2003 and remains on CRFB's board of directors.[34][35] Cox Wait was succeeded byMaya MacGuineas, who also served as director of the Fiscal Policy Program at theNew America Foundation.[9] In July 2015, CRFB announcedMitch Daniels,Leon Panetta andTimothy Penny as the new co-chairs of its board.[6] CRFB's board of directors was previously co-chaired byWilliam Frenzel (R-MN),Timothy Penny (I-MN), andCharles Stenholm (D-TX), all former Congressional representatives.[citation needed]
The organization's activities are overseen by a 40-member board of directors. A large part of the board is composed of former directors of budget-related government offices including theCongressional Budget Office (CBO), theOffice of Management and Budget (OMB), the House and Senate Budget Committees, and theFederal Reserve Board of Governors. The group also includes numerous formerCongressmen, formerU.S. Comptrollers General, university andthink tank experts onfiscal policy, and prominent members of the business and legal community.[6]
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The Committee focuses on many issues includingdeficit reduction,entitlement reform, fundamentaltax reform, improving thebudget process, and other topical issues as they arise.
In the past, CRFB has produced analyses in areas including:
The organization also issues regularpress releases on day-to-day news developments related tofederal budget,tax, andfiscal policy.
Michael Hiltzik, writing in theLos Angeles Times, called the CRFB "a billionaire's front group that likes to portray itself as a neutral budget watchdog" due to the group's ties to billionairePeter G. Peterson andThe Peter G. Peterson Foundation.[36] Paul Blumenthal and Christina Wilkie, writing inHuffPost, made a similar criticism of the group's connection to Peterson.[37]
EconomistPaul Krugman, writing inThe New York Times, criticized "deficit scolds" like the CFRB for having bad policy suggestions and being hypocritical, as well as having hidden intentions to "shred thesocial safety net". Krugman argued that "the deficit scolds, while posing as the nation's noble fiscal defenders, have in practice shown themselves both hypocritical and incoherent. They don't deserve to have a central role in policy discussion; they really don't even deserve a seat at the table."[38] In July 2025, however, he said that the CFRB is "an honest, highly competent think tank".[39]
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| International | |
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| National | |
