What's in the Build Back Better Act?
Investigating a bill with Congress.gov and CBO Cost Estimates
Before getting to the topic for this week, a quick note: An NPR report on December 26th issued a reminder about the COVID-19 funeral cost assistance program coordinated by FEMA. Disasterassistance.gov directs those who would like to apply for funeral cost reimbursement to get more information from this FEMA page (also see this informational video from FEMA with ASL interpretation) and issued the following instructions (current as of Monday, December 27th, 2021):
“After you read this information and gather the necessary documents, call 1-844-684-6333 (TTY 1-800-462-7585) to apply for this assistance. Call this number also for help with ALL other questions or concerns about COVID-19 Funeral Assistance. The phone line is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.”
In Civics this Week: Using government information to stay on top of BBB
Welcome to 2022! As much as we may want to leave 2021 behind, some ongoing issues remain. For instance, one of the most prominent legislative questions the American public will grapple with in the New Year with concerns the future of the Build Back Better Act (BBB).1
It can be challenging to stay up to date with such high-profile legislation when news coverage ricochets between pro and anti-factions as the bill slowly advances through Congress. It is not easy to keep track of what is actually in the proposed bill and where it stands in the legislatives process.2 The civic resources highlighted today can help with that.
Congress.gov, the official site for U.S. federal legislative information, can help you stay informed about the contents of BBB and track its legislative progression. There are many productive ways to use Congress.gov, including accessing live recordings of legislative sessions, reading the Congressional Record, and learning about the Constitution. But today, let’s focus on using this site to track a piece of current legislation.3 We’ll also explore accessing reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). While these two resources will not give you a play-by-play of any ongoing BBB negotiations between senators on the bill’s provisions4, they will:
Provide a structure to contextualize news coverage and track BBB’s progress
Facilitate access to primary sources such as the original text of BBB itself
Shed light on more detailed analyses from government officials
Let’s get to it!
Accessing BBB on Congress.gov
Congress.gov provides access to an almost overwhelming amount of information and resources to help you stay informed about the legislative branch. I recommend checking out the formal tutorials on using this resource for comprehensive overviews of this resource. Personally, I like the Two-Minute Tips videos (the ones on finding and exploring a bill are the most pertinent to today’s topic).
Let’s get started with a search for BBB on Congress.gov. First, look under “Most-Viewed Bills” and click on H.R. 5376 [117th] Build Back Better Act. This list updates every Monday to reflect the bills with the highest views - BBB is top of the list as of January 1, 2022.
All screenshots taken 12/30/21
If you don’t see BBB listed under the most-viewed, the second option is to perform a search using the search bar at the top of the page. You could do this a few ways, but I suggest you select “Legislation” from the drop down bar and type “build back better” between quotation marks (this conducts a search for the entire phrase rather than for each word separately. It will give you 8 pertinent results instead of 654 mostly irrelevant results).
In the image above, note that the designation of “BILL” in red font on the first result and the title “Build Back Better Act” indicate that this is the document we’re looking for. Click on the blue link to H.R. 5376 to get to the bill overview, shown below:
The overview box provides a wealth of useful information about BBB. Importantly, the tracker at the bottom shows the most recent stage the bill has completed. As of today, the bill has been introduced by Rep. Yarmuth as the Sponsor and has passed the House. The Roll Call Votes link is also popular because it provides details on how each member of the House voted on BBB. To the right of the overview box, you’ll see a link to search for and contact your representatives about the bill.
Scroll down below the overview box to read the current summary of BBB, authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Bills with many actions taken on them will reflect changes made to their provisions throughout the legislative process, but currently, BBB only has one summary dated from the day it was introduced to the House. If the bill is passed by the Senate, the CRS will provide another summary to describe that version of the bill.
The summaries are crucial to your understanding, especially with bills that are too long to realistically read in full. If you click on the “Text” tab to the right of the Summary tab, you can open the pdf version of the bill - all 2,468 pages of it! (I’ve included a picture of the first page because it’s cool to see what the text printed by the Government Publishing Office looks like.)
Personally, I like to read as much of the primary text as I can when I’m learning about a bill - that way I compare what I glean from media outlets on the topic. I usually look for some useful keywords or phrases in the summary that draw my attention and then use Ctrl+F to search for them in the original text. This way, you can read about some provisions in more depth without spending time scrolling endlessly trying to find the right sections.
Show me the money! Accessing CBO Cost Estimates via Congress.gov
There has been a great deal of public discussion on BBB’s costs. To take a deeper dive into its finances, look next to the bill overview where you’ll see a link for “CBO Cost Estimates” on the right. After clicking, you’ll see several dated links for different cost estimates published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which provides independent budgetary and economic analyses for proposed legislation (the introduction page notes that CBO is nonpartisan).5
It’s not easy to identify the content of these links, so just click on the first one, which will take you to the most recent cost estimate on BBB published by the CBO. From there, you can click “View Fall 2021 Reconciliation Topics Page”, which will take you to a general list of all the BBB cost estimates that have been published.
The CBO on its own is an extensive resource that could easily be the subject of several newsletter posts. For now, here are some links to documents that I think are most useful for learning about the cost of BBB (they can all be found on the Fall 2021 Reconciliation page):
This is the summary of CBO cost estimates for BBB. For spreadsheet lovers or those looking for more specific numbers, this one’s for you. I recommend reading the summary notes tab.
This letter from the CBO Director updated the estimated budgetary effects of BBB after it passed the House. Not as much detail, but more readable (if you looked at the original cost estimate spreadsheet, you’ll want to read this too for the updates about the Social Security Administration).
Slide decks from CBO that describe forecasted economic effects of some major policies outlined in BBB. These are very readable and easy to understand for those of us who don’t have extensive knowledge of economics, and they complement the cost estimates well.
In conclusion
To develop your navigation skills on Congress.gov and CBO.gov, explore them further by selecting other bills/topics besides BBB and test out different features. Try putting keywords into the search bar on Congress.gov to find legislation related to a topic you’re interested in. Share some of your findings in the comments!
If you’re looking to supplement your research on a bill with a non-governmental resource, I recommend taking a look at GovTrack - they do a great job synthesizing congressional activities and contextualizing legislation in accessible and actionable ways (see their mission). There is also interesting original research on GovTrack Insider. Both websites are great examples of how organizations use government information (and explain it!) to support civic engagement.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week! If you enjoyed the content, please share with your friends!
See coverage on Joe Manchin’s recent apparent withdrawal of support for the spending bill and subsequent concession from Democratic senators that the bill would have to wait for a Senate vote until 2022. Also see earlier coverage from The Hill.
As this Congress.gov video series on the legislative process points out, many bills progress unpredictably and experience complications that result in atypical pathways towards becoming law. The video series offers helpful information about the general proceedings necessary for a bill to become law.
See also this blog post from the Library of Congress Law Library about Congress.gov and a recording of a recent public forum about the resource.
The video linked on that page, 10 Things to Know About the Congressional Budget Office, is worth a watch: