Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

It approaches its research and advocacy from a broadly left-of-center perspective, and coordinates the State Priorities Partnership network of more than 40 left-of-center think tanks that advance left-of-center policies at the state and local level across the country. ¹  CBPP is funded by left-of-center grantmaking foundations including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ⁴ as well as major labor unions. ⁵

Background

Originally founded with a focus on federal policy, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ work broadened its scope to include state-level policy in the 1990s as the federal government shifted more responsibility for poverty-relief policies to the states. ¹ However, rather than undertaking these policy reviews on its own, the CBPP instead moved to create and coordinate the State Priorities Partnership (SPP) network of more than 40 left-of-center think tanks that work with the CBPP and each other to perform similar policy analyses and advocacy. ¹ According to its website, the SPP’s goal is “reducing inequality and fighting poverty by making sure states have the resources they need through an accountable budget process.” ⁶ The CBPP claims that SPP groups “have helped to raise or protect roughly $40 billion in state revenue to support a range of investments” in left-of-center priority programs.  ¹

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities describes itself as a non-partisan organization. Its principles broadly align with left-of-center concepts of social justice, identity politics, and economic inequality.  ¹

The CBPP is generally considered to advocate for left-of-center budgetary and economic policy positions such as support for the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); expansion of state and federal Earned Income Tax Credits; support for federal food and housing assistance programs and opposition to work requirements for access to those programs; expansion of immigration; and advocacy for federal intervention during recessions and other economic crises. ¹ Some media outlets, such as Reuters, have referred to the CBPP as a “left-leaning” organization. ⁷

Its work is regularly cited by Democratic elected officials and left-of-center activists, and a 2014 Inside Philanthropy article written by David Callahan claimed, “No think tank commands more respect among liberal policy wonks and Capitol Hill Democrats than the D.C-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.” ⁸

The group also receives financial support from several major left-of-center foundations, organizations, and labor unions, including the Center for American Progress, ⁹ the AFL-CIO, ¹⁰ and the National Education Association (NEA). ^{11 12}

Activities

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities undertakes and publicizes research and analysis on public policy topics, with a strong focus on fiscal and economic policy. As of 2025, it identified its primary research focus areas as the federal budget, federal taxation, state budgets and taxation, health, Social Security, the economy, poverty and inequality, food assistance, income security, housing, climate change, and immigration. ¹

The CBPP has largely opposed the second Trump administration’s policies, including changes to entitlement programs, federal workforce reductions, immigration enforcement, and other topics. ^{13 14 15}

The CBPP contributed to and advocated for then-President Barack Obama’s health-care policy agenda, including the Affordable Care Act, and in organizing efforts at the state level to expand Medicaid and other government health care programs. ^{1 16}

The CBPP initially opposed the George W. Bush administration’s tax cuts of 2001 but later attempted to aid low-income families in taking advantage of the expanded child-care tax credit. The CBPP also opposed President Bill Clinton’s efforts to enact bipartisan welfare reform, predicting 1 million Americans would become impoverished. ⁴

Political Advocacy

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has had two long-running disputes with two right-leaning organizations that put out annual research reports that often conflict with the CBPP’s principles and priorities: the Tax Foundation ¹⁷ and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ¹⁸

Tax Foundation

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities regularly criticized the non-partisan Tax Foundation’s calculation of “Tax Freedom Day,” calling the Tax Foundation’s figures “misleading.” ¹⁷

The Tax Foundation published responses to the CBPP’s criticism, characterizing its charges as “either factual errors, unsupportable value judgments or misleading interpretations of the Tax Foundation’s tax burden estimates.” ¹⁹

The Tax Foundation explained that while it calculated an average tax burden of all American taxpayers, the CBPP’s preferred model was to instead focus on the tax burden of the middle-income quintile.  “The tax burden of those in the middle-income quintile simply is not the same as a nation-wide overall average that includes all U.S. taxpayers,” the Tax Foundation noted. ¹⁹  

The Tax Foundation also criticized CBPP for claiming that the Tax Foundation’s analysis had included rents paid to governments as taxes, which according to the Tax Foundation, “does not include this line item in the list of taxes used in calculating Tax Freedom Day, and never has.” ¹⁹

More broadly, the Tax Foundation rejected the CBPP’s criticism of what taxes it included in its analysis, noting that it used the federal government’s most authoritative source, “the National Income and Product Accounts compiled by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).” ¹⁹

“The CBPP’s criticism of which taxes and income are included is not properly a criticism of the Tax Foundation, but is rather a sweeping criticism of the federal government’s official methodology of accounting for taxes and income,” the Tax Foundation concluded. ¹⁹

ALEC

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has criticized the work of the right-of-center group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), especially regarding ALEC’s annual “Rich States, Poor States” report on state-by-state economic freedom. ¹⁸

The CBPP-affiliated Iowa Policy Project created GradingTheStates.org to promote a left-of-center attempt at rebutting ALEC’s model and promote its own left-of-center state ranking system. The site is now operated by the left-of-center Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), which promotes increased taxation on businesses and high net worth individuals to increase government revenues. ²⁰

ALEC has pushed back against the CBPP’s and the ITEP’s criticism, referencing third-party research from respected sources and noting in part that, “In numerous studies, the consensus of academic experts shows that economic opportunity is best advanced by a competitive tax policy and an efficient government that provides core public services — not a high-tax, ever-growing government.” ²¹

Leadership

Sharon Parrott is the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, succeeding Robert Greenstein, who founded the CBPP in 1981 and worked as its president until he stepped down at the end of 2020. ²² Parrott initially worked at the Center from 1993 through August 2009 as the director of the welfare reform and income support division. ²³

After departing the center for the first time, Parrott worked under then-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Obama administration as Counselor for Human Services Policy from August 2009 until November 2012. Parrott then rejoined CBPP working from 2012 to 2014 as vice president for budget policy and economic opportunity, only to depart the CBPP for the second time to serve in a role at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the final years of the Obama administration. Parrott rejoined the CBPP for a second time in 2017 as its senior vice president for federal policy and program development. ²³

Kenneth Apfel is the chair of the board of directors for the CBPP as of 2025. Apfel is a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and served as the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration in the Clinton administration. Apfel also worked as Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget and as a professor of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. ²⁴

Robert Greenstein is the founder and president emeritus of the CBPP. Greenstein previously served as administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Jimmy Carter. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Greenstein to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Greenstein also led the federal budget policy component on President Obama’s transition team following the 2008 election. ²²

Funding

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has received funding from a wide array of high-profile left-of-center organizations including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, ⁴ the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, the Gates Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Price Philanthropies Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Schusterman Family Foundation, the Stoneman Family Foundations, the Walmart Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, Arnold Ventures, the Babcock Foundation, the Bohemian Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Raikes Foundation, the Schooner Foundation, the Solidarity Giving, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ²⁵ the Robin Hood Foundation, ²⁶ the Hopewell Fund, ²⁷ the New Venture Fund, ²⁸ the Jewish Communal Fund, ²⁹ the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, ³⁰  the Schott Foundation for Public Education, ³¹ the Network for Good, ³² the Sandler Foundation, ³³ and the National Immigration Law Center. ³⁴

The Center for American Progress, which frequently references the CBPP research in its advocacy, donated $613,750 to CBPP in 2022. ^{9 2}

The CBPP has also received funding from labor unions including the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and Unite Here Local 25. ⁵

Finances

According to its 2023 990 form, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reported a revenue of $32,208,552, expenses of $44,312,883, and total assets of $163,943,457. ³⁵