The Subcommittee will come to order. Good morning, and welcome to an original jurisdiction hearing of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process. This hearing will provide an opportunity to have a dialogue about the very important issue of how the Federal government determines the various costs or revenues associated with proposed policy changes. Today’s session is Part One of a two-part hearing, and we can look forward to our second session exactly one week from today – same time, same place.

While many may be familiar with the term “dynamic scoring”, the aim of our hearing is to help clarify exactly what it is and what it is not, and why we need to further examine the concept. To be certain, changing the way that revenue and expenditure estimates are currently done is no easy proposition, but we have a responsibility, as policymakers, to pursue the best possible estimating approach we can find – which may mean including the use of more macroeconomic feedback effects.

Today, we are delighted to hear from a panel of expert economists with impressive qualifications. They are David Malpass, who is Chief Global Economist for Bear Stearns, a leading securities and brokerage firm, and a former Staff Director of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, among other things; Stephen Entin, the President and Executive Director of the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, who also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department under the Reagan Administration; and, last but not least, Peter Orszag, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, who also served as Special Assistant for Economic Policy to President Clinton.

Thank you all for being here and for participating in our discussion this morning. With that, I turn to Ranking Member Slaughter for her opening statement.