Senate can pass anything using Reconciliation

According to this piece, the Senate is not really limited to using Reconciliation for the specific topics laid out in the Congressional Budget Act. There is a loophole. It is misunderstood that the Senate Parliamentarian decides what can and cannot be in a Reconciliation Bill. But they only advise the Presiding Officer who makes that decision. Given that office now belongs to a Democrat or the VP, they decide what Reconciliation covers. Yes the Repugs can object, but that would require 60 votes to overrule the Presiding Officer and they can't get the votes. 

However, the Senate interpretation of the CBA, which created reconciliation, is that only 3 reconciliation Bills can be passed in any year. So a Senate majority can change that interpretation to allow more than 3 per year. Or alternatively, since the CBA has been amended several times before it can be amended again by a new Congress to allow for as many reconciliation Bills as needed. So if the Democrats have the courage to play hardball they can use Reconciliation for anything and as often as they like to bypass the filibuster. That though is the question: Do they have the political will to do it?

PS: The Senate can use the reconciliation process itself to pass a budget amendment to the CBA and it should be their next order of business.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Songs, lyrics, poems

Songs, lyrics, poems and other writing/media

Here are about a dozen songs I've recorded at YouTube.* And this link is to my lyrics and poems folder at Google docs, mostly from my ...