The Budget Reconciliation Process: House and Senate Procedures

Summary

The budget reconciliation process is an optional procedure that operates as an adjunct to the

budget

resolution process established by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The chief purpose of the

reconciliation process is to enhance Congress’s ability to change current law in order to bring

revenue, spending, and debt-limit levels into conformity with the policies of the annual budget

resolution.

Reconciliation is a two-stage process. First, reconciliation directives are included in the budget

resolution, instructing the appropriate committees to develop legislation achieving the desired

budgetary outcomes. If the budget resolution instructs more than one committee in a chamber, then

the instructed committees submit their legislative recommendations to their respective Budget

Committees by the deadline prescribed in the budget resolution; the Budget Committees incorporate

them into an omnibus budget reconciliation bill without making any substantive revisions. In cases

where only one committee has been instructed, the process allows that committee to report its

reconciliation legislation directly to its parent chamber, thus bypassing the Budget Committee.

The second step involves consideration of the resultant reconciliation legislation by the House

and Senate under expedited procedures. Among other things, debate in the Senate on any

reconciliation measure is limited to 20 hours (and 10 hours on a conference report) and amendments

must be germane and not include extraneous matter. The House Rules Committee typically

recommends a special rule for the consideration of a reconciliation measure in the House that places

restrictions on debate time and the offering of amendments.

As an optional procedure, reconciliation has not been used in every year that the congressional

budget process has been in effect. Beginning with the first use of reconciliation by both the House

and Senate in 1980, however, reconciliation has been used in most years. In three years, 1998 (for

FY1999), 2002 (for FY2003), and 2004 (for FY2005), the House and Senate did not agree on a

budget resolution. Congress has sent the President 19 reconciliation acts over the years; 16 were

signed into law and three were vetoed (and the vetoes not overriden).

Following an introduction that provides an overview of the reconciliation process and discusses

its historical development, the report explains the process in sections dealing with the underlying

authorities, reconciliation directives in budget resolutions, initial consideration of reconciliation

measures in the House and Senate, resolving House-Senate differences on reconciliation measures,

and presidential approval or disapproval of such measures. The text of two relevant sections of the

Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (Sections 310 and 313) is set forth in the appendices, along with

a list of other Congressional Research Service products pertaining to reconciliation procedures.

This report will be updated as developments warrant.