[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 8, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6593-6595]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-1871]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


2011 Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act Annual Report

AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This report is being published as required by the Statutory 
Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, 2 U.S.C. 931 et seq. The Act 
requires that OMB issue (1) an annual report as specified in 2 U.S.C. 
934(a) and (2) a sequestration order, if necessary.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Locke. (202) 395-3945.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This report and additional information about 
the PAYGO Act can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/paygo_default.

    Authority: 2 U.S.C. 934.

David Rowe,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget.

    This Report is being published pursuant to section 5 of the 
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, Public Law 111-139, 124 
Stat. 8, 2 U.S.C. 934, which requires that OMB issue an annual PAYGO 
report, including a sequestration order if necessary, within 14 working 
days after the end of a Congressional session.
    This Report describes the budgetary effects of all legislation 
enacted during the first session of the 112th Congress and presents the 
5-year and 10-year PAYGO scorecards maintained by OMB. Because neither 
the 5-year nor 10-year scorecard shows a debit for the budget year, 
which for purposes of this Report is fiscal year 2012,\1\ a 
sequestration order under subsection 5(b) of the PAYGO Act, 2 U.S.C. 
934(b), is not necessary.
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    \1\ References to years on the PAYGO scorecards are to fiscal 
years.
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    There was no legislation designated as emergency legislation under 
section 4(g) of the PAYGO Act, 2 U.S.C. 933(g) enacted during the first 
session of the 112th Congress. In addition, the scorecards include no 
current policy adjustments made under section 4(c) of the PAYGO Act, 2 
U.S.C. 933(c), for legislation enacted during the first session of the 
112th Congress. For these reasons, the Report does not contain any 
information about emergency legislation or a description of any current 
policy adjustments.

I. PAYGO Legislation With Budgetary Effects

    PAYGO legislation is authorizing legislation that affects direct 
spending or revenues; and appropriations legislation that affects 
direct spending in the years beyond the budget year or affects revenues 
in any year.\2\ For a more complete description of the Statutory PAYGO 
Act, see the OMB Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/paygo_description, and Chapter 14, ``Budget Process,'' of the Analytical 
Perspectives volume of the 2012 Budget, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy12/index.html.
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    \2\ Provisions in appropriations acts that affect budget 
authority for direct spending in the years beyond the budget year 
(also known as ``outyears'') or affect revenues in any year are 
scorable for the purposes of the PAYGO scorecards except if the 
provisions produce outlay changes that net to zero over the current 
year, budget year, and the four subsequent years. As specified in 
section 3 of the Statutory PAYGO Act, off-budget effects are not 
counted as budgetary effects. Off-budget effects refer to effects on 
the Social Security trust funds (Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and 
Disability Insurance) and the Postal Service.
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    The 5-year PAYGO scorecard shows that PAYGO legislation enacted in 
the first session of the 112th Congress was estimated to have PAYGO 
budgetary effects that increase the deficit by $1,880 million each year 
from 2012 through 2016. \3\ However, balances carried over from the 
second session of the 111th Congress result in net savings being shown 
on the 5-year scorecard for years 2012 through 2015. The 10-year PAYGO 
scorecard shows that PAYGO legislation for this session of Congress 
decreased the deficit by $710 million each year from 2012 through 2021. 
Balances from the prior session further increase the savings in years 
2012 through 2020.
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    \3\ As provided in section 4(d) of the PAYGO Act, 2 U.S.C. 
933(d), budgetary effects on the PAYGO scorecards are based on 
Congressional estimates for bills including a reference to a 
Congressional estimate in the Congressional Record, and for which 
such a reference is indeed present in the Record. Absent such a 
Congressional cost estimate, OMB is required to use its own estimate 
for the scorecard. No bill enacted during the first session of the 
112th Congress had such a Congressional estimate and therefore OMB 
was required to provide an estimate for all PAYGO laws enacted 
during the session.
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    In the first session of the 112th Congress, 33 laws were enacted 
that were determined to constitute PAYGO legislation. Of the 33 enacted 
PAYGO laws, 6 were estimated to have PAYGO budgetary effects (costs or 
savings) in excess of $500 million over one or both of the 5-year or 
10-year PAYGO windows. These acts were:

[[Page 6594]]

     Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of 
Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011, Public Law 112-9;
     Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing 
Appropriations Act, 2011, Public Law 112-10;
     Budget Control Act of 2011, Public Law 112-25;
     An Act to Extend the Generalized System of Preferences, 
and for other purposes, Public Law 112-40;
     An Act to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
repeal the imposition of 3 percent withholding on certain payments made 
to vendors by government entities, to modify the calculation of 
modified adjusted gross income for purposes of determining eligibility 
for certain healthcare-related programs, and for other purposes, Public 
Law 112-56; and
     Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012, Public Law 112-74.
    In addition, 10 laws were enacted that were estimated to have PAYGO 
budgetary effects (costs or savings) greater than zero but less than 
$500 million over one or both of the 5-year or 10-year PAYGO windows. 
These acts were:
     Restoring GI Bill Fairness Act of 2011, Public Law 112-26;
     Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Public Law 112-29;
     Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012, Public Law 112-33;
     Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act, 
Public Law 112-34;
     Veterans Health Care Facilities Capital Improvement Act of 
2011, Public Law 112-37;
     United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation 
Act, Public Law 112-41;
     United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement 
Implementation Act, Public Law 112-42;
     United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement Act, Public 
Law 112-43;
     Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 
2012, Public Law 112-55; and
     National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, 
Public Law 112-81.
    Finally, in addition to the laws identified above, 17 laws enacted 
in the first session were estimated to have negligible budgetary 
effects. The budgetary effects of these laws were estimated to fall 
below $500,000 in each year and in the aggregate from 2012 through 
2021.

II. Budgetary Effects Excluded From the Scorecard Balances

    One law enacted in the first session of the 112th Congress had 
estimated budgetary effects on direct spending and revenues that were 
not included in the calculations for the PAYGO scorecards due to an 
exclusion required by law. Section 512 of Public Law 112-78, the 
Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, provides that 
``[t]he budgetary effects of this Act shall not be entered on either 
PAYGO scorecard maintained pursuant to section 4(d) of the Statutory 
Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.'' For this reason, the budgetary effects of 
this law were not included in the PAYGO scorecards.\4\
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    \4\ If this law had been entered on the scorecard, the budgetary 
effects of the law included in the scorecard totals would have been 
reduced by a current policy adjustment for the bill's provisions 
relating to the Medicare physician payments under the Sustainable 
Growth Rate system.
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III. The Budget Control Act

    The Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), Public Law 112-25, made 
changes in higher education programs, set limits on future 
discretionary spending, provided for increases in the statutory limit 
on Federal debt, and created a process for enacting further deficit 
reduction. The PAYGO effects shown on the scorecard for the BCA are 
limited to those effects due to changes made to higher education 
programs. In setting limits on total annual discretionary 
appropriations,\5\ for the years 2012 through 2021, the BCA established 
enforcement mechanisms on discretionary spending to ensure that those 
limits would not be breached. Because the discretionary caps and the 
related enforcement provisions applied only to future levels of 
discretionary appropriations and did not affect appropriations already 
enacted, these provisions of the BCA were determined not to have 
budgetary effects under the PAYGO Act. The BCA also established a 
process for achieving at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 
the 2012 to 2021 period, backed by automatic measures for achieving the 
$1.2 trillion in deficit reduction in the event that the process did 
not produce deficit reduction of at least that amount. The process 
involved the establishment of a joint House and Senate committee, the 
``Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction,'' and the enactment of a 
bill recommended by the Joint Committee by January 15, 2012. The 
automatic measures involved sequestration of discretionary spending for 
2013, reductions to the discretionary spending caps for 2014 through 
2021, and a sequestration of non-exempt direct spending accounts 
beginning in 2013. The automatic measures to enforce deficit reduction 
pursuant to the Joint Committee process--which were designed to 
influence future Congressional action, rather than to change 
authorizations for specific direct spending programs or to change the 
level or purpose of enacted discretionary appropriations--were 
determined, for scoring purposes, to be enforcement measures and 
therefore were not included in the entry for the BCA on the PAYGO 
scorecards.
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    \5\ Discretionary spending is spending controlled by annual 
appropriations acts.
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IV. PAYGO Scorecards

                                                           Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Scorecards
                                        [In millions of dollars; negative amounts portray decreases in deficits]
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                                    2011       2012       2013       2014       2015       2016       2017       2018       2019       2020       2021
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           Net PAYGO
 
Impact.........................         83      3,836     12,432      2,852     -2,685     -7,118       -929     -2,840     -2,867     -4,791     -5,071
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    Totals.....................  .........  .........  .........        2011-2016           9,399  .........  .........        2011-2021          -7,099
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   Five-year PAYGO Scorecard
 
Current Congressional session..      1,880      1,880      1,880      1,880      1,880      1,880  .........  .........  .........  .........  .........
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Balances from prior session....    -11,035    -11,035    -11,035    -11,035    -11,035          0
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[[Page 6595]]

 
    Total, five-year scorecard.     -9,155     -9,155     -9,155     -9,155     -9,155      1,880  .........  .........  .........  .........  .........
    Ten-year PAYGO Scorecard
 
Current Congressional session..       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710       -710
Balances from prior session....     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371     -6,371          0
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    Total, ten-year scorecard..     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081     -7,081       -710
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    The total net budgetary effects of all PAYGO legislation enacted 
during the first session of the 112th Congress are shown on the line 
labeled ``net PAYGO impact'' in the above table. The total five-year 
net impact was a cost of $9,399 million which is averaged over the 
years 2012 to 2016 on the 5-year PAYGO scorecard, resulting in a cost 
of $1,880 million in each year. Savings carried over from the prior 
session of the Congress more than offset these costs, resulting in a 
savings of $9,155 million each year in 2012 through 2015. The five-year 
PAYGO window extended only through 2015 in the last session of the 
prior Congress so, there were no five-year savings to carry over into 
2016.
    The total 10-year net impact of legislation enacted during the 
first session of the 112th Congress was a savings of $7,099 million. 
The 10-year PAYGO scorecard shows the total net impact averaged over 
the 10-year period, resulting in $710 million in savings every year. 
Balances from the prior session increase the savings in years 2012 
through 2020 to $7,081 million.

V. Sequestration Order

    As shown on the scorecards, the budgetary effects of PAYGO 
legislation enacted in the first session of the 112th Congress, 
combined with the balances left on the scorecard from the previous 
session of Congress, resulted in net savings on both the 5-year and the 
10-year scorecard in the budget year, which is 2012 for the purposes of 
this Report. Because the costs for the budget year, as shown on the 
scorecards, do not exceed savings for the budget year, there is no 
``debit'' on either scorecard under section 3 of the PAYGO Act, 2 
U.S.C. 932, and there is no need for a sequestration order.
    The savings shown on the scorecards for 2012 will be removed from 
the scorecards that are used to record the budgetary effects of PAYGO 
legislation enacted in the second session of the 112th Congress. The 
totals shown in 2013 through 2021 will remain on the scorecards and 
will be used in determining whether a sequestration order will be 
necessary at the end of future sessions of the Congress.

[FR Doc. 2012-1871 Filed 2-7-12; 8:45 am]
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