Reconciliation Process
May 13th 2010 18:42
One of the terms we heard repeatedly during the final days of the health care debate was using reconciliation to pass the bill. The debate was focused on whether the Democrats should use reconciliation and if reconciliation could be used for the Heath Care Reform bill. What the Senate was talking about is that reconciliation requires only 51 votes (or even 50, in which case the tie breaker is the sitting Vice President of the United States). Both the House of Representatives and the Senate can use the reconciliation process. Congress has the ability to use the reconciliation process when it wishes to legislate policy modify changes in mandatory or other direct spending or tax laws to achieve the budget resolution’s goals. This is one reason for the discussion of using reconciliation. Since most people feel that the legislation has nothing to do with the budget.
The reconciliation concept was written in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. “Reconciliation was into a prominent procedure for implementing the policy decisions and assumptions embraced in a budget resolution, in a way that was unforeseen when the Budget Act was written. The original intent of the Budget Act, most pundit and according to Senator Robert Byrd reconciliation had a fairly narrow purpose. It was expected to be used together with the second resolution adopted in the fall, and was to apply to a single fiscal year and be directed primarily at spending and revenue legislation acted on between the adoption of the first and second budget resolutions” (Senate web page). According to Senator Byrd “Using reconciliation to ram through complicated, far-reaching legislation is an abuse of the budget process. The writers of the Budget Act, and I am one, never intended for its reconciliation’s expedited procedures to be used this way. These procedures were narrowly tailored for deficit reduction. They were never intended to be used to pass tax cuts, or to create new Federal regimes. Additionally, reconciliation measures must comply with Section 313 of the Budget Act, known as the Byrd Rule, which means that whatever health legislation is reported from the Finance Committee or legislation from any other Committee that is shoe-horned into reconciliation will sunset after five years. Additionally, numerous other non-budgetary provisions of any such legislation will have to be omitted under reconciliation. This is a very messy way to achieve a goal like health care reform, and one that will make crafting the legislation more difficult” (Senator Byrd’s Web Page).
I just want my readers to know that I bring you the facts. I try to point out important terms that you should know and understand. By presenting the facts without the commentary allow you to form your own opinion. Your opinion matters – you need to think through your ideas formulate your point of view and then do something about it. The facts on how things or processes work should assist you in understanding how your government works. Thanks for reading please continue to do so and we will continue to work through issues, policy and how your government works.
References
1 Senate Web site http://www.senate.gov
2, Senator Robert Byrd web page http://byrd.senate.gov/
I just want my readers to know that I bring you the facts. I try to point out important terms that you should know and understand. By presenting the facts without the commentary allow you to form your own opinion. Your opinion matters – you need to think through your ideas formulate your point of view and then do something about it. The facts on how things or processes work should assist you in understanding how your government works. Thanks for reading please continue to do so and we will continue to work through issues, policy and how your government works.
References
1 Senate Web site http://www.senate.gov
2, Senator Robert Byrd web page http://byrd.senate.gov/
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