Www Cbo Gov

CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Data Access

Overview

This skill provides programmatic access to the Congressional Budget Office's budget and economic data. The CBO website (www.cbo.gov) is protected by DataDome anti-bot protection that blocks automated requests with 403 Forbidden responses. This skill works around that limitation by using the Internet Archive's cached snapshots.

Data Categories Available

The CBO provides extensive budget and economic projections:

1. 10-Year Budget Projections - Monthly projections of federal revenues, spending, and deficits
2. Long-Term Budget Projections - 30-year budget outlook
3. Historical Budget Data - Historical budget tables and data
4. 10-Year Trust Fund Projections - Social Security, Medicare, and other trust fund projections
5. Revenue Projections, by Category - Detailed revenue projections by tax type
6. Spending Projections, by Budget Account - Detailed spending projections
7. Estimates of Automatic Stabilizers - Economic stabilizer estimates
8. Tax Parameters and Effective Marginal Tax Rates - Tax policy data
9. Economic Projections - GDP, inflation, unemployment projections
10. Potential GDP and Underlying Inputs - Economic potential estimates
11. Long-Term Economic Projections - 30-year economic outlook
12. Demographic Projections - Population and demographic projections

Functions

list_categories

List all available data categories.

result = await execute({"function": "list_categories"})

Returns:

• List of categories with file counts and latest update date
• Total number of files available

get_category_files

Get all downloadable files for a specific category.

result = await execute({
    "function": "get_category_files",
    "category": "Budget Projections"
})

Returns:

• List of files with download URLs
• Date/version information for each file
• File format (typically XLSX)

get_publication

Get data files for a specific CBO publication by ID.

result = await execute({
    "function": "get_publication",
    "publication_id": "59710"  # The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034
})

Returns:

• Publication title and date
• Associated downloadable files (PDF, XLSX, etc.)

download_file

Download and parse an XLSX data file.

result = await execute({
    "function": "download_file",
    "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/.../Budget-Projections.xlsx",
    "parse_content": true
})

Returns:

• File size and status
• Sheet names in the workbook
• Preview of content (first 100 text strings)

get_catalog

Get the complete data catalog with all categories and files.

result = await execute({"function": "get_catalog"})

search_sitemap

Search the CBO sitemap for URLs (the sitemap is accessible without DataDome blocking).

result = await execute({
    "function": "search_sitemap",
    "pattern": "budget"
})

Example Usage

Get latest budget projections

# List available categories
categories = await execute({"function": "list_categories"})

# Get budget projection files
files = await execute({
    "function": "get_category_files",
    "category": "10-Year Budget Projections"
})

# Download the most recent file
if files["matched_categories"][0]["files"]:
    latest_file = files["matched_categories"][0]["files"][0]
    data = await execute({
        "function": "download_file",
        "url": latest_file["url"]
    })
    print(f"Sheets: {[s['name'] for s in data['sheets']]}")

Get publication data

# Get data for the 2024 Budget Outlook
pub = await execute({
    "function": "get_publication",
    "publication_id": "59710"
})

print(f"Title: {pub['title']}")
print(f"Files: {[f['name'] for f in pub['files']]}")

File Formats

CBO data files are primarily provided in:

• XLSX - Excel format with multiple sheets
• PDF - Reports and documentation
• ZIP - Compressed collections

XLSX files contain structured data tables with:

• Table names (e.g., "Table 1-1", "Table 3-1")
• Data organized by fiscal year
• Historical data and projections
• Various economic and budget metrics

Data Variables

Typical variables available in CBO data files:

• Revenues (individual income taxes, corporate taxes, payroll taxes)
• Outlays (mandatory, discretionary)
• Deficits/Surpluses
• Debt held by the public
• GDP projections
• Inflation projections
• Unemployment projections
• Trust fund balances
• Population projections

Notes

DataDome Protection

The main CBO website (www.cbo.gov) uses DataDome bot protection which:

• Returns 403 Forbidden for automated requests
• Requires JavaScript challenge solving
• Blocks standard HTTP clients

This skill bypasses the protection by using Internet Archive snapshots which:

• Provide full access to historical and current data
• Cache XLSX files for direct download
• Are updated regularly with new snapshots

Data Freshness

• Internet Archive snapshots are typically 1-6 months old
• For the most current data, check the archive timestamp
• CBO typically updates major datasets monthly or quarterly
• Annual major reports (Budget Outlook, Economic Outlook) in January/February

Rate Limits

• Be respectful when downloading large files
• The skill implements a 2 requests/second rate limit
• Consider caching results locally

Source URLs

• Main data page: https://www.cbo.gov/data/budget-economic-data
• Publications: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/{id}
• Sitemap (accessible): https://www.cbo.gov/sitemap.xml
• Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/{timestamp}/https://www.cbo.gov/...