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Are there limits to what can be enacted through the congressional budget reconciliation process?

Tuesday, January 12, 2021
By Austin Tannenbaum
YES

The budget reconciliation process allows changes to spending, revenues and/or the debt limit in order to reconcile existing laws and tax codes to Congress' annual budget resolution. Committees draft reconciliation recommendations, then bundle them together.

In the Senate, “reconciliation bills” move especially quickly because they require only a simple majority to pass rather than the 60 votes needed to end debate and pass other legislation.

Rules permit “extraneous” reconciliations to be challenged and scrapped if they:

  • Have no (or incidental) budgetary effect.
  • Fall outside of the relevant committee's jurisdiction.
  • Increase deficits after an initial 10-year “window.”
  • Impact Social Security.

In 2017, Republicans used budget reconciliation to pass a large tax cut package. In 2010, the Democrats used reconciliation to pass the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

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