(gentle upbeat music)
- [Narrator] A debate over how the government manages
its budget is taking over Capitol hill.
The keyword is...
- Reconciliation.
- I am willing to go to reconciliation.
- [Narrator] Budget reconciliation is a process
that speeds up lawmaking.
That may come in handy for Washington's majority party
this summer.
While bipartisan group reached an agreement
to spend more than $1 trillion on infrastructure in June.
- This is roads and bridges,
but also lots of other kinds of infrastructure.
- [Narrator] Democrats also want to pass
the American Families Plan
to shore up the country's social safety net.
- Republicans and this group did not wanna go along
with my and my family plan issues
and childcare tax credits,
the human infrastructure I talk about.
- [Narrator] In total, the president wants to spend
$6 trillion in fiscal year 2022.
In order to get anywhere close to that level of spending,
Democrats will need to use budget reconciliation.
But there's no guarantee that this will work.
Divisions within the party could scuttle the entire process.
Here's how budget reconciliation works
and why Democrats are using it to pass Biden's agenda.
Every fiscal year, Congress has an opportunity
to pass a new budget bill.
This is an opening to pass laws with a simple majority,
without needing 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
- Let's be clear purpose of this in many ways,
from a partisan perspective is
to get around the 60 vote hurdle on regular legislation.
- [Narrator] Bill Hoagland has worked on
congressional budgets for more than three decades.
- There had been something like about
22 reconciliation bills enacted into law,
and I was involved in, but 18 of those.
- [Narrator] Here's how the reconciliation process works.
(words slide in)
(gentle jazzy music)
When a party controls the House, Senate and White House,
it can write the government's budget.
The first draft of the budget is called a Budget Resolution.
This document can include reconciliation instructions
for one or more committees to change existing rules
on spending revenue or debt.
These instructions allow the controlling party
to fold its goals into the budget,
instead of passing them as regular laws
that are subject to filibusters.
Once a budget resolution passes,
the next step is committee review,
where members of Congress write policies
that deliver what the reconciliation instructions ask for.
For example, the Transportation Committee
may receive instructions that affect road building programs.
These instructions can ask the committee
to change how much is spent,
how much tax is collected,
or how much debt the country takes on for this program.
But new policies sometimes depend on rules and regulations
that don't directly affect the budget
and might not pass in reconciliation.
- It's not out of the realm of possibility
that you couldn't create new spending
or new taxes or new provisions,
but it has to have a direct fiscal impact.
- [Narrator] Once the recommendations are finalized,
they're sent to the Senate Budget Committee.
This group verifies that the revised plan
changes the budget in a way
that follows the rules of Congress.
After passing committee review,
the budget is sent to the Senate chamber
for final consideration on the floor.
A budget reconciliation bill carries special privileges,
which can speed up its passage.
For starters, there's a 20 hour time limit
to review the proposed changes.
In the normal lawmaking process,
debate is what makes Capitol Hill stall out.
Often in the form of a filibuster.
A reconciliation bill avoids the filibuster
and can pass with a simple majority.
In the event of a tie,
which is possible in today's split Senate.
The Vice-President steps in to cast a tie-breaking vote.
If the vote passes both chambers of Congress,
the reconciliation bill, then heads to the president's desk
where it can be signed into law.
Making rules in this manner comes with caveats.
For instance, reconciliation measures are supposed
to focus on the budget impacts and little else.
This is one of several restrictions
put in place by the Senate's Byrd rule.
- The biggest one is a provision says,
does the provision in reconciliation,
is it merely incidental to an overall policy?
If it doesn't pass that test,
then any United States Senator can stand up and say,
Mr. President, that provision XYZ violates the Byrd rule.
I raise at budget at point of order,
and unless there's 60 votes to waive that point of order,
that particular provision is surgically removed.
Doesn't kill the bill.
Just simply takes it out.
- [Narrator] Early in 2021, the Senate parliamentarian's
interpretation of the Byrd rule,
forced Democrats to abandon a piece of the COVID-19 bill.
- On this reconciliation bill does not include
an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
In my view it should have.
- [Narrator] Democrats are on a tight timeline
to pass laws that affect many areas,
including infrastructure, climate change, taxes,
paid sick leave, unemployment payments,
childcare and education programs.
It's a lot to get done
before the 2022 campaign cycle kicks off.
- When we get into next year
fiscal year 20 budget resolution 23,
then it becomes so much more partisan
that it may even more difficult to achieve agreements.
(gentle somber music)
- [Narrator] In order to use budget reconciliation
in an evenly split Senate.
Democrats need everyone in the party to fall in line.
That puts all eyes on moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin,
who could vote no on a reconciliation bill
and prevent any laws from passing.
- If they think in reconciliation,
I'm gonna throw caution to the wind
and go to 5 or $6 trillion
when we can only afford one or one and a half or maybe two,
and what we can pay for it.
Then I can't be there.
- [Narrator] With the spending figures piling up
and time running out,
this year's budget talks are shaping up to be
a particularly high stakes negotiation.
(gentle somber music continues)