A Preview and Recap of the Reconciliation Process
By Hugh T. Ferguson, NASFAA Managing Editor
Now that President Donald Trump has returned to the presidency with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, the administration has the ability to pursue a legislative process that allows for lower vote thresholds to enact certain laws that directly impact the federal budget.
While the majorities, particularly in the House, are incredibly narrow, Republicans still have a chance to pursue a process known as “reconciliation." This process does not need to meet the normal 60-vote threshold in the Senate. It needs a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. In the House, it simply needs a majority of members to pass.
The process begins with a joint budget resolution that calls for reconciliation agreed to by both the House and Senate. That package will then set the stage for the eventual legislative text containing specific spending-related policies related to the federal budget. If agreed to, the drafted budget could be used to push through a number of Republican priorities related to federal spending.
However, congressional Republicans need to agree on the programs and tax policies they’d like to prioritize. Their legislation will then be subject to certain Senate rules and can be eliminated should the Senate parliamentarian deem them extraneous to the budget. The parlimentarian’s role, dubbed the “Byrd Rule,” is used to prohibit policies that do not change spending levels or address the debt limit. The Senate can vote to overrule the parliamentarian's ruling but that vote requires 60 votes.
Republicans are currently meeting with their leadership and the White House to circulate varying plans that could be tied to the process.
In early January, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) began to outline a timeline for the reconciliation process with the goal of enacting legislation sometime around Memorial Day. Such a narrow timeline would require significant committee and floor time, which Democrats can delay with tactics like forcing committee clerks to read through the entirety of the text before debate begins. Congress also needs to deal with a March 14 short-term spending deadline concerning the spending levels for fiscal year 2025, which is a separate process.
Currently, the House has not yet scheduled a markup for the budget framework and Republicans are still very far apart on coming to an agreement that could even advance out of their committee.
Since this process is mostly used during a trifecta of control in Washington and is subject to certain limits within the budget, it has not been pursued too frequently, especially since unified control of each chamber and the White House does not happen all that often.
The Biden administration completed one reconciliation process, which resulted in the American Rescue Plan being signed into law, while the administration’s second effort (Build Back Better) ultimately stalled.
During Trump’s first administration, his first reconciliation effort was to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, which fell short in the Senate. However, his second effort concerning changes to tax policy, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was signed into law.
Stay tuned to Today’s News for a follow-up article that will explore what higher education-related policies could be considered during this process.
Publication Date: 2/6/2025
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