About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Letter to the Honorable Paul Ryan [i] (July 2009)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo8348 and id is 1 raw text is: July 14, 2009 Honorable Paul Ryan Ranking Member Committee on the Budget U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman: This letter responds to your request for an analysis of H.R. 2920, the Statutory Pay- As-You-Go Act of 2009, as introduced on June 17, 2009. That legislation, which is virtually identical to the proposal recently advanced by the Administration, would establish new statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) requirements and authorize the Administration to enforce compliance through a sequestration mechanism. That pro- cess, although similar to the statutory PAYGO system that was in place from 1990 through 2002, would differ from the former system in several significant ways. Since the expiration of the former statutory PAYGO requirements, the House of Rep- resentatives and the Senate have each instituted a rules-based pay-as-you-go process. The statutory process detailed in H.R. 2920 would differ substantially from the House and Senate rules. One significant difference is that the current rules are applied on a bill-by-bill basis as the House and the Senate consider legislation, whereas the proposed statutory process (like the former PAYGO system) would apply to the cumulative estimated impact on the deficit of legislation affecting direct spending and revenues enacted during a given year. In the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO's) view, the PAYGO process specified in H.R. 2920 includes some features-in particular, the statutory sequestration mecha- nism-that could enhance overall budget enforcement. However, the proposed pro- cess has other features that could lead to greater spending or lower revenues in the coming decade than would occur under the existing House and Senate rules. For example, the provisions in H.R. 2920 that would exempt certain tax and spending policies from the PAYGO requirements and alter the proposed scoring of conversions of programs from a discretionary to a mandatory status could increase future deficits. Removing those provisions might mitigate such an effect.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most