Whats the difference between PAYGO in the House and PAYGO in the Senate?
Both the House and the Senate have a type of PAYGO rule. The House rule is simple and essentially requires that all mandatory spending and tax legislation be deficit-neutral. The Senate, however, contains a large loophole. It exempts deficit-increasing legislation if certain changes are made in the annual budget resolution. As a result, many costly bills have been exempted from a PAYGO point of order in the Senate. In FY 06, for instance, the PAYGO rule was modified to exempt a series of tax cuts while it still applied to spending increases. Different standards apply to overturning these rules in each chamber. House leadership can suspend PAYGO with a special rule. The Senate must provide 60 affirmative votes to overturn a PAYGO point of order. The House and Senate rules also tabulate the cost of bills differently. The Senate PAYGO rule applies to the sum of costs and savings in bills that have been enacted over a session of Congress. It keeps a running tally of all new mandatory costs
