The Senate can de facto "initiate" a cliff-fix bill

[cthulu2016]

The House passed some nonsense before the election extending all the Bush tax cuts.

The Senate, which never took up what the Housse passed, can amend that existing House bill into just about anything and then send it to conference, where the House and Senate representatives work out the differences between the two versions... which would be huge, of course.

Then the conference committee version goes back to the two houses to be voted on.

So the Senate can jump-start the process any time.

That does not mean that anything would happen in conference that could pass both houses, of course. But at least it works around the requirement that the House initiate tax and spending bills.

[MADem]

1. They'd have to amend--they cannot initiate anything from scratch.

All appropriations have to start in the House.

[cthulu2016]

2. Yes, as stated in the OP

[MADem]

3. It's more of a "toss it over the transom" than "initiate" in that case, but I take your point, is

what I am trying to say.

[cthulu2016]

4. I hear you.

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. You are assuming that they would actually want to do that