Can someone explain what "reconciliation" is?

[LAS14]

Schumer on Rachel tonight said stuff that sounded like the Dems get two chances (over what time period???) to pass a bill with only (!!!!) 51% majority. What are the details?

tia
las

[drray23]

1. at the start of a new legislative session

you can pass a bill which deals with funding and which only requires a simple majority and cant be fillibustered.

[servermsh]

2. I'll just link to the Wikipedia article :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_Congress)

[TigressDem]

3. It's complicated. Huff Post has a good article. Basically it's tied to budget. Got the ACA passed.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/budget-reconciliation-rules-democrats-biden_n_5ff9d3e6c5b66f3f795e554d



For the first time in a decade, a Democratic Congress will be able to pass laws that a Democratic president can sign. And although Senate Republicans can still wield the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome, Democrats can approve bills through “reconciliation,” under which legislation can pass the Senate with a simple majority vote.

In principle, Democrats can enact a significant portion of their agenda that way. One reason is that reconciliation is tied to the budget process, and Congress never actually passed a budget last year. The new Congress could take advantage of that by quickly passing a reconciliation bill for the current fiscal year, still leaving opportunities to pass reconciliation bills for fiscal 2022 and 2023.

[PoliticAverse]

6. The ACA passed in 2 parts. The first part passed with 60 votes, the 2nd part with reconcillation.

[TigressDem]

7. Yep. It's the one example of DEMS using Reconcilliation nt

[FBaggins]

4. Right now it's a threat to try to push support for a stimulus/recovery package

It isn't likely that it will actually be used. It takes far too long and can only be used once per budget cycle (meaning Democrats would give up the ability to actually pass a budget later on).

[brush]

5. Has to be budget related for a reconciliation, a simple majority vote to pass.

In the Senate of 100, that means a 51-49 vote normally is enough to pass a bill into law but in the present 50-50 split a bill can pass by the VP, the president of the Senate, casting her vote to break the tie resulting in a 51-50 passing vote for the Democrats.

Woohoo!

There is a limit to how many times it can be used however.