Marvin Phaup is Research Scholar and Professorial Lecturer at Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, The George Washington University, where he teaches and conducts research on federal budget concepts and policy. From July 2009 through December 2010, he directed the Federal Budget Reform Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, whose objective is to improve federal policy by transforming the federal budget into a more relevant and useful source of fiscal information for decision makers and the public. He holds a PhD (economics) from Virginia and BA from Roanoke College.
Previously, he headed the Financial Studies/Budget Process group at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. His work focused on the implications of federal financial policies for their budgetary treatment. His early research contributed to the development of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, which changed the budgetary basis of accounting for direct loans and loan guarantees from cash-basis to accrual. During his tenure, the financial studies group addressed the federal cost of government sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the budgetary treatment of federal investment in risky private securities; the effect of including the cost of market risk in the subsidy cost of credit; the value of pension insurance provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; the cost of the federal student loan programs; reconciling federal financial statements with the budget; and possible revisions to the Federal Credit Reform Act.
