HB 26-1364

House Bill 26-1364 addresses how the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the year 2025 is calculated. Typically, the CPI averages monthly data throughout a year, but in 2025, due to missing October data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusted their method, which ended up giving more weight to the first half of the year compared to the second half. This bill proposes calculating the 2025 CPI by averaging the semi-annual figures instead, ensuring equal representation for both halves of the year. The bill has been signed into law and will affect how inflation is measured for that specific year.

Official Summary

Joint Budget Committee. The United States bureau of labor statistics (BLS) determines the consumer price index (CPI) for each month. At the end of a year, the BLS determines the CPI for that year by averaging the CPI for each month in the year. However, as of March 2026, the BLS did not determine the CPI for the month of October and then determined inflation for 2025 by averaging the CPI for every month besides October in 2025. The BLS's approach to determining the CPI for 2025 overweighted the CPI of the first half of 2025 relative to the second half of 2025, since the BLS included each month from the first half of 2025 and only 5 of the 6 months in the second half of 2025, in determining the CPI for 2025.     The bill, for 2025 only, determines the CPI for 2025 by averaging the 2 semi-annual BLS CPI determinations for 2025. This approach gives equal weight to the CPI from the first and second halves of 2025.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

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