Ms. Tanaka writes
about federal budget and fiscal policy issues and serves as a consultant to
non-profit organizations that work on federal budget issues. From 1999-2000
she was the Associate Director for Communications and a Senior
Analyst in the Budget Analysis Division of the Congressional Budget Office,
located in Washington, DC. In the
first capacity, she was CBO’s spokesperson and managed the agency’s press
contacts. As a member of CBO’s
Projections Unit, Ms. Tanaka participated in the preparation of projections of
federal spending that were used by the Congress to develop and enforce the
annual congressional budget resolution. She wrote chapters of CBO’s annual
reports, congressional testimony, and other materials that focused on federal
budget process, concepts and scorekeeping issues.
Prior to joining CBO,
Ms. Tanaka was Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget,
a bi-partisan, non-profit educational organization.
Ms. Tanaka directed Committee’s analytic work on issues related the
federal budget, including Social Security, health care programs, tax issues, and
budget process and scorekeeping. Before
joining the Committee in 1992, Ms. Tanaka was a budget examiner in the Office of
Management and Budget. During her 10
years in the Executive Branch, Ms. Tanaka analyzed budget, regulatory, and
legislative policy proposals related to disaster assistance, emergency
preparedness, small businesses, minority-owned businesses, housing, and other
programs funded through annual appropriations.
She also served as a special assistant to OMB’s Assistant Director of
Administration and Legislation and worked on agency-wide personnel and
administrative issues. In addition,
on several occasions, she served as an acting branch chief and managed staff and
analytic work.