WEBVTT - How Does Budget Reconciliation Work? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.280 Stuff Lauren boglebam here. Passing new legislation in the US 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.600 can be well difficult, to say the least, and when 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.800 there's a Congress that's all but deadlocked because of razor 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.360 thin majorities in the House and Senate, that makes passing 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:28.200 big budget legislation even more problematic. That's where reconciliation comes 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.400 into the picture. Budget reconciliation is a way for Congress 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.400 to pass major funding bills, which are notoriously difficult to pass, 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.879 especially when there is a very evenly divided Senate. It 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.440 was created by the Congressional Budget Act of four as 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.479 a way to quickly advance these tax and spending bills. 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.240 With reconciliation, the party in control of Congress can pass 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.920 funding legislation in the Senate, things like taxes, spending, and 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.000 debt limits, with a simple majority that is either vote 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.440 or fifty votes and the Vice president's tie breaking vote 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.240 without the threat of a filibuster. It takes sixty votes 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.760 to defeat a filibuster. The Congressional Budget Act also limits 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.839 Senate debate on the bill to twenty hours and limits 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.280 debate on the compromises between the two houses to ten hours, 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.959 which helps the Senate expedite and pass reconciliation bills much faster. 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.839 And to start the process, Congress agrees on a budget 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:31.319 resolution that includes a reconciliation directive four specified committees. These 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.800 directives instruct the committees on how much to increase or 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.560 decrease spending in revenue or how to limit the debt ceiling. 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:43.160 It also provides a deadline for completion. A Congress doesn't 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.560 tell the committees how to hit the reconciliation target, just 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.000 to hit it. Once the various committees complete their tasks, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.440 the House and Senate budget committees combine the recommendations into 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.640 a single omnibus bill, the Reconciliation Bill, and then the 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.640 House and Senate vote. Both must obtain a majority to 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:07.360 pass the legislation. Reconciliation bills can include spending changes two items, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.799 such as Medicare, Medicaid, federal civilian and military retirement benefits, 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.720 the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program a SNAP formerly known as 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:20.040 food stamps, and farm programs. The Social Security is untouchable. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.280 The reconciliation rule allows bills that raise the deficit, but 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.440 only for ten years. The Trump tax cuts were passed 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.760 fire reconciliation, though the Senate allowed some of the tax 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.880 cuts to expire so the bill wouldn't increase the federal 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.800 deficit past that ten year window. In addition, the Bird Rule, 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.960 named for the late Senator Robert Byrd, who served as 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.239 the Democratic Senator for West Virginia for fifty one years, 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.160 is intended to keep extraneous policies from being included in 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.880 budget reconciliation, and basically it keeps senators from sneaking non 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.480 budgetary items into reconciliation. It's up to the Senate parliamentarian 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.360 to decide what is and isn't extraneous to the reconciliation. 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.240 Important to note, reconciliation can only be used once perfect 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.600 school year, and only to change or reconcile laws related 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:18.120 to taxes and spending. Since reconciliation was first introduced in 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.200 the Congressional Budget Act of nineteen seventy four, it's been 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.880 used twenty one times. Some of its notable uses were 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.519 the Trump tax cuts in seventeen, the Bush tax cuts 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.440 in two thousand one and two thousand three, Pluton's welfare 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.880 program in ninet and major deficit reduction bills in the 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.240 nineteen eighties and nineties, the reconciliation process was also used 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.480 to pass parts of the Affordable Care Act or a 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:47.520 c A. In and in one, reconciliation was used to 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.840 pass President Joe Biden's one point nine trillion dollar COVID 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:59.160 nineteen relief package. Today's episode is based on the article 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.000 Reconciliation and Bass tracks massive budget bills through Congress on 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.560 how stuff works dot Com. Written by Patty rasmusin brain 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.880 Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.360 stuff works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.360 Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeart 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.080 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:17.800 favorite shows.