Pelosi, Hoyer Letter to Budget Committee Conferees on PAYGO

Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today released the following letter restating their support for statutory PAYGO, which was delivered to House and Senate members of the Budget conference committee. 

The letter states that the House will not consider any conference reports or the Senate-passed versions of the following four bills -- middle-income tax cuts, estate tax, AMT relief, and the sustainable growth rate in the Medicare program for physicians - "unless these conference reports or bills include statutory PAYGO, the bills are fully offset under traditional scorekeeping, or statutory PAYGO has already been enacted into law."

Below is the full text of the letter to the conferees:

April 28, 2009

Dear Budget Conferee:

As you are aware, the conference report on the budget resolution provides that the Budget Committee Chairman may adjust the baseline and use a "current policy baseline" for four bills - middle-income tax cuts, estate tax, AMT relief and the sustainable growth rate in the Medicare program for physicians.  Under the House budget resolution, the Budget Chair can only do so if one of two conditions are met: 1) the House has already passed and sent to the Senate a statutory PAYGO bill; or 2)  if the statutory PAYGO bill is included as part of the underlying non-offset bill being sent to the Senate.

The House is strongly committed to passing statutory PAYGO.  The President asked the Congress "to develop a PAYGO law that would help return the nation to a path of fiscal responsibility."  To achieve this objective, the House will attach statutory PAYGO to each of the four bills mentioned above or follow the House PAYGO rule. The House will not consider any conference reports on these four bills or any of them directly from the Senate unless these conference reports or bills include statutory PAYGO, the bills are fully offset under traditional scorekeeping, or statutory PAYGO has already been enacted into law.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI                                                       STENY HOYER

Speaker of the House                                                Majority Leader