Democrats Are Not Pressed For Time
Congressional Democrats are again looking to the budget reconciliation process to enact significant planks of President Joe Biden's agenda before November's midterm elections. According to reports, Democrats in the Senate are racing the clock to pass substantial climate, healthcare, and tax policies through their chamber over Republican objections before the start of the Senate's August recess.
Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced last week that they reached an agreement to resurrect a modified Build Back Better Act (HR 5376). News of the Manchin-Schumer Build Back Better deal - now renamed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 - caught their fellow Democrats off guard.
Reconciliation is a fast-track process, the purpose of which is to make it easier for lawmakers to pass budget-related legislation. It prevents senators from filibustering reconciliation bills on the Senate floor. Consequently, 50 Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris can pass the Inflation Reduction Act over Republican objections without securing 60 votes to invoke cloture (i.e., to end debate) on the bill first. But Democrats do not have the votes just yet. For example, Kyrsten Sinema, D- Ariz., still has not indicated whether she will support the Manchin-Schumer agreement.
Are Democrats Pressed For Time?
Notwithstanding how senators will vote, Senate Democrats have time to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. They don't have to race the clock. This is because the special rules regulating the reconciliation process make it possible for Democrats to pass the bill before the Senate's August recess starts. And Democrats can always delay recess - or cancel it altogether - if they need more time.
Congress created the reconciliation process in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-344). Its purpose is to make it easier for the House and Senate - especially the Senate - to change current law to align (i.e., reconcile) revenue, spending, and deficit levels derived from projections under permanent law with those specified in Congress’s annual budget resolution.
How Does Reconciliation Work?
The first step in the reconciliation process is when Congress passes a budget resolution that sets overall spending, revenue, and debt levels for each fiscal year that it specifies. The budget resolution must also include reconciliation instructions before Congress can use the unique process's expedited procedures to change permanent law. In the second step, the House and Senate consider their reconciliation bills under expedited procedures. Finally, if the House and Senate pass reconciliation bills with different provisions, they must reconcile the differences between their two versions via a conference committee or a process of amendment exchange between the two chambers.
Last August, Congress set up the reconciliation process when it approved a budget resolution for the fiscal year 2022 (S. Con. Res. 14). That measure included reconciliation instructions directing 12 Senate committees to report legislation changing spending, revenue, and/or deficit levels by specific amounts. The House passed its version of the reconciliation bill – the Build Back Better Act - last November. But the Senate has not yet taken up the legislation.
While the House can adopts special rules that establish alternative procedures for the consideration of reconciliation bills in that chamber, the process's expedited procedures are critical in the Senate. This is because reconciliation bills are privileged - senators cannot filibuster motions to proceed to their consideration. Instead, the Senate votes as soon as any senator makes a motion to start a debate on the bill. After that, senators have - at most - 20 hours to debate a reconciliation bill. They can continue to offer amendments to the legislation after 20 hours have expired during the so-called "vote-a-rama" that concludes the reconciliation process. But the longest vote-a-rama - in 2008- lasted for only 44 votes. And if the House and Senate pass different reconciliation bills, senators have just 10 hours to debate any subsequent conference report or amendments between the two chambers.
Can Democrats Take a Procedural Shortcut?
If Senate Democrats need more time to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, they can skip a step in the reconciliation process and bring the legislation directly to the Senate floor. The reconciliation rules stipulate that the Senate Budget Committee must combine each committees reconciliation provisions into one omnibus reconciliation bill before the full Senate can debate it. But Democrats ignored that requirement in 2010 when they brought the House-passed Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (Public Law 111-152) directly to the Senate floor. It was the first time the Senate debated a reconciliation bill that was not first reported by one of its committees. And while Republicans protested the maneuver at the time, they later bypassed the committee stage of the reconciliation process to expedite debate on the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Public Law 115-97). Most recently, Democrats bypassed reconciliation’s committee stage last year to further expedite debate on the American Rescue Plan Act (Public Law 117-2).
Is the August Recess Optional?
Democrats also have other options if they need more time to work before recess begins on August 8. They can always opt to delay or cancel leaving town for their month-long break. It would not be the first time senators changed their August plans. In 2018, senators returned to Washington after a truncated August recess to gain more time to fund the government and confirm President Donald Trump’s nominees. At the time, sixteen Republicans noted that they were willing to “work nights and weekends and forego the August recess” if needed to complete action on these items. In 2017, Republicans called for delaying recess to give themselves more time to complete their work. Most recently, several Senate Democrats called on their colleagues to postpone or cancel the August recess last year to give themselves more time to process their legislative backlog.
The Takeaway
If Democrats have the votes to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, they have the time they need to pass it.