Does UI Extension Require Compliance with PAYGO? Would that it were easy to answer this one. As you might imagine, the answer is: it depends. PRO: PAYGO applies to an extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits because there would be -- without an offset -- a net increase of the deficit at the end of the day. Like other trust funds (think Social Security), there is no actual money there, just IOUs. CON: But in the case of the UI trust fund, there is plenty of money in the account -- it's $35 billion in the black and the proposed legislation would cost roughly $12 billion over ten years. ANSWER: the current ($35 bn. surplus) condition of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) trust fund has no bearing on the question. More directly relevant is whether the proposed UI extension is adopted as part of the emergency supplemental war spending appropriation (as it was in the Senate), or as a stand-alone bill. If the former, technically mandatory spending is not subject to PAYGO on an emergency supplemental appropriations bill; if the latter, the stand-alone, without offsets, would be subject to a (waivable) point of order under the rules of PAYGO.