crs_reports: R49340

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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R49340 Budgetary Effects Excluded or Eliminated from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Scorecards 2026-09-09T04:00:00Z 2026-09-12T05:07:54Z Active Reports Tori Gorman Statutory PAYGO, Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Federal Budget Deficit The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Statutory PAYGO, P.L. 111-139, 2 U.S.C. §§931-939) is a budget enforcement mechanism intended to ensure that laws affecting direct (mandatory) spending or revenues do not, in aggregate, increase budget deficits. Under the act, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to maintain two scorecards that record the estimated average annual net effects on the deficit of enacted PAYGO legislation over 5 years and 10 years, respectively. The scorecards are cumulative—they keep a running total of net deficit effects across successive sessions of Congress. OMB is required to finalize the scorecards at the end of each congressional session. If either scorecard shows a positive balance in the budget year (a “debit,” representing a net increase in the deficit), the President is required to issue a sequestration order within 14 days, implementing across-the-board reductions in non-exempt mandatory spending programs sufficient to eliminate the debit. Since adoption of the Statutory PAYGO Act, laws estimated to increase federal budget deficits have been enacted, but a sequester under the law has never been ordered—an outcome attributable to congressional actions to exclude or eliminate the budgetary effects of legislation from the scorecards. Between 2010 and 2024, nearly $12.07 trillion was excluded or eliminated from the 5-year Statutory PAYGO scorecard and $17.07 trillion was excluded or eliminated from the 10-year scorecard (as measured in nominal dollars) in the following manner: Exclusions provided in the original Statutory PAYGO Act. The 2010 law excluded from the scorecards the budgetary effects of legislation that would extend certain policies current at that time (relating to certain tax policies and Medicare). The law also excluded the projected budgetary savings anticipated from repeal of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS Act), and any provision designated by Congress as an emergency. In total, between 2010 and 2025 these original provisions excluded $2.48 trillion from the 5-year scorecard and nearly $2.40 trillion from the 10-year scorecard. Additional provisions included by Congress in new laws. Congress has at times included provisions within a new law (enacted after Statutory PAYGO) that expressly excluded—in whole or in part—the budgetary effects of that law from the Statutory PAYGO scorecards. In total, between 2010 and 2025, these provisions excluded $4.70 trillion from the 5-year scorecard and nearly $7.83 trillion from the 10-year scorecard. Legislation that eliminated existing balances on the Statutory PAYGO scorecards. Between 2010 and 2025, five laws have been enacted that subtracted nearly $4.88 trillion from the 5-year scorecard and nearly $6.85 trillion from the 10-year scorecard. Because the budgetary effects of certain laws have been excluded from the Statutory PAYGO scorecards, and other laws have eliminated existing balances from those scorecards, the conditions that would trigger a sequester under the act have never been met. Given these results, Congress may consider whether the Statutory PAYGO law—as currently structured—is an effective tool for controlling deficits, and whether it should be revised, replaced, or repealed. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R49340/R49340.3.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R49340.html

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