CBO to Deliver Biden Bill Analysis Today, Clearing Way for Vote

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s signature tax and spending bill could get a vote in the House as soon as Thursday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announced that it will provide a cost estimate for the measure in the afternoon.

Moderate Democrats forced party leaders to delay a vote for weeks on the climate and social safety net bill in order to review the total spending, revenue and deficit estimates. Five holdout moderates have pledged to vote for the bill if the CBO estimate is consistent with White House projections that tax hikes in the bill will allow it to pay for itself.

The analysis is widely expected to show some deficit increase, because the CBO disagrees with a Treasury Department estimate on how much tax revenue can be raised by increasing tax audits, via expanded funding for Internal Revenue Service enforcement. However, moderate Democrats such as Josh Gottheimer and Stephanie Murphy indicated this week that the discrepancy has been expected and wasn’t likely to sink the bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier Thursday that she aims to hold a vote on the bill as soon as the CBO provides its estimates.

The legislation then would head to the evenly divided Senate, where the bill does not yet have the support of 50 senators required to pass, and where substantial changes are likely.

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