Reconciliation Explained

Ordinarily, a bill would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass its filibuster rule. But Republicans are advancing the “Big, Beautiful Bill” under a complicated process called reconciliation.

If successful, the process means that a bill can pass with 51 votes, or 50 if it’s supported by the vice president’s tiebreaking vote.

Reconciliation starts when the Senate and House adopt a resolution that says how much they want to spend on the federal budget or change taxes.

Then, the Senate directs its various committees to come up with ways to make spending fit within that resolution, reconciling what the federal government is doing with what Congress planned.

Each Senate committee drafts a proposal for the federal departments that it oversees.

That’s where the Senate process stands right now.

Next, each committee’s work is examined to see whether it follows the Byrd Rule, which sets six tests to see whether an item can be done in reconciliation.

If a particular item fails one of those tests, it gets stripped out. Colloquially, in the Senate, this is known as going through the “Byrd bath.”

When that’s done, what follows is a “vote-a-rama,” where the Senate votes on each committee’s language and senators have a chance to offer amendments.

Because of limits on the time allowed for debate, the votes often proceed quickly.

Once the Senate is done with its work, its version of the budget must be combined and compromised with a different version that has gone through a similar process in the House.

Once the House and Senate have agreed on the same version of the budget, it goes to the president for his signature.

by James Brooks, Alaska Beacon |  Read more:

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[ed. The most concise explanation I've read yet. At least its been helpful in killing off this travesty (for now): Republican plan to sell over 3,200 square miles of federal land is found to violate Senate rules. See also: Alaska’s public lands belong to all of us — don’t sell them off (ADN).