What is tax reconciliation in Congress?

Congressional budget committees use the reconciliation process to ensure tax laws and mandatory spending programs are revised according to the budget resolution.Revenue and spending legislation can be fast-tracked with reconciliation.

An expedited process is used to pass reconciliation legislation.The first thing Congress does is pass a budget resolution containing reconciliation instructions for congressional committees.The House and Senate budget committees combined the responses from the committees into a single reconciliation bill.

The Senate has special rules for reconciliation bills.There is only 20 hours of debate on reconciliation bills.The law can be passed by a simple majority in the Senate if it is free of points of order.Any member can raise a point of order against a reconciliation bill if it violates the spending and revenue targets in the budget resolution or other budget rules and laws.A point of order requires 60 votes to be overcome.A special rule can be adopted by the House Rules Committee to set procedural rules on legislation.The Rules Committee has the power to limit debate in the House.

Reconciliation procedures were used to pass the George W. Bush tax cuts of 2001–03.The Senate limits the content of reconciliation laws to items that do not affect outlays or revenue.Initiatives that would increase the deficit beyond the fiscal years covered by the budget resolution are not allowed.

25 budget reconciliation bills have been enacted by Congress.Four of the bills were vetoed and the other 21 were signed into law.The Senate didn't have enough votes to pass the 2001 tax cuts.The legislation was passed as a reconciliation bill.The tax cuts were scheduled to end after 10 years in order to avoid the Byrd rule.The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was amended shortly after it was enacted.The tax cut and reform bill was passed using reconciliation.The bill was made temporarily to avoid violating the rule.

Stanley E. Collender was born in 1999.There is a guide to the federal budget.The Century Foundation is in Washington, DC.