POLITICO Playbook: Chuck Schumer's 51-vote gambit

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By RYAN LIZZA, EUGENE DANIELS and TARA PALMERI

03/29/2021 06:20 AM EDT

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Congress didn’t pass a budget resolution last year, so Democrats used reconciliation left over from fiscal year 2021 to pass President JOE BIDEN’S $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. That means they still have the fiscal 2022 reconciliation bill left as a vehicle for portions of Biden’s infrastructure, tax, climate and social welfare agenda.

But what if, buried in the rules of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, there were a magical parliamentary trick that Democrats could use to unlock a third reconciliation bill this year?

Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER believes he has found it. It’s called Section 304, and you’re about to start hearing about it a lot.

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Judge for yourself (or good luck trying). Here’s the fine print of Section 304: “At any time after the concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal year has been agreed to pursuant to section 301, and before the end of such fiscal year, the two Houses may adopt a concurrent resolution on the budget which revises or reaffirms the concurrent resolution on the budget for such fiscal year most recently agreed to.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/03/29/chuck-schumers-51-vote-gambit-492275

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1. One miscalculation on that strategy: Joe Manchin