Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R‑FL) is urging Congress to make budget scoring more transparent. On Sept. 17 he introduced S.5442, the Cost Estimates Improvement Act, which would require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to factor the cost of servicing the nation’s debt into every estimate they produce, “to the extent practicable.” The bill has been referred to the Senate Budget Committee.
Why the bill matters
During the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026 the federal government posted a $2 trillion deficit, while net interest on the public debt topped $1.02 trillion. The Center Square calculated that, when spread across the 162.8 million individual income tax returns processed in fiscal 2025, the interest charge averages more than $6,200 per return. Scott argues that without this figure, lawmakers and taxpayers lack a full picture of how expensive congressional spending truly is.
Legislative history
The measure mirrors a similar proposal from Rep. Michael Cloud (R‑TX), who has re‑filed the Cost Estimates Improvement Act in every Congress since 2019. Cloud’s version reached a vote in the House Budget Committee in May 2024 (17‑7) but never made it to the floor. He re‑introduced the current version, H.R.10327, on Sept. 10.
Both bills would apply broadly. Scott’s language covers “any estimate” prepared by the CBO under the Congressional Budget Act, as well as any estimate prepared by the JCT, “to the extent practicable.” Cloud’s version expands the scope of an earlier 2024 draft that limited the requirement to certain committee‑approved estimates.
Cost and feasibility
When the narrower 2024 version cleared committee, the CBO estimated the implementation cost would be essentially nil, with only a negligible administrative expense and “few additional resources” needed. Policy director Chris Towner of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a longtime supporter of adding debt‑service costs, says the CBO can incorporate the data quickly because it already provides a public tool for calculating interest on similar proposals.
Towner notes that the added interest typically runs “somewhere around a fifth” of a bill’s ten‑year cost when left unoffset, a figure roughly matching Brookings analyst Jessica Riedl’s estimate for Cloud’s bill.
Expert perspectives
Douglas Holtz‑Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former CBO director, calls the technical change “simple” but cautions it is unlikely to reshape most legislative debates. “I don’t think it’s going to change things dramatically,” he said, noting that most bills are too small to shift the line‑item interest figure in a meaningful way. He added that only unusually large measures—such as the tax‑and‑spending package passed in July 2025, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—might see a noticeable impact.
Holtz‑Eakin also highlighted a technical nuance: scoring interest bill by bill does not add up neatly to the total interest the government actually pays, because interest rates move with the overall borrowing level, not with any single piece of legislation. He sees little risk of manipulation, stating, “There’s no new gaming,” though he expects the same complaints the CBO already receives about the accuracy of its interest‑rate forecasts.
Riedl warned that measuring interest is only the first step; the real challenge will be deciding what to do once the cost is visible. “Many lawmakers surely won’t want that additional requirement,” she said, suggesting that requiring offsets for newly revealed interest costs could meet resistance.
Political context
Scott framed the proposal as a matter of fiscal sanity and transparency. “We’re $40 trillion in debt,” he told The Center Square. “The American people deserve fiscal sanity and transparency with their tax dollars. Requiring CBO to factor record‑high interest rates into their calculations will give lawmakers and the American people a better, more transparent understanding of just how expensive Congress’ spending sprees actually are. This bill is a necessary first step on the long road to getting America’s finances back on track.”
The office of Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley (D‑OR) did not respond to a request for comment on S.5442.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
