by Lindsay Rosen

Created on: June 07, 2010   Last Updated: June 08, 2010

Political jargon can be enough to make even interested Americans want to tear their hair out and maintain relative political ignorance, but understanding basic terms like ‘reconciliation’ are essential to analyzing policy and forming opinions on legislature. Knowledge of the basic structure of the American political system helps inform voters and debunk lies. 

Reconciliation came to the attention of most folks during the recent health care bill struggle in congress. Reconciliation is a legislative process of the United States Senate that allows debate limited to 20 hours concerning a controversial budget bill.

The process was introduced by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and has gone on to become the primary procedure used to reach decisions where budget is concerned. The process of reconciliation is triggered when Congress passes a concurrent resolution on a budget.

House committees report changes in law affecting the budget in an omnibus bill. This reconciliation bill is granted 20 hours of debate in the Senate. Only one reconciliation bill may be passed a year.

Reconciliation usually involves legislature that concerns the budget deficit or surplus but has been used in a variety of setting. Before Barack Obama, Bill Clinton attempted to use reconciliation to pass his 1993 health care bill but was denied due to claims that the health care debate was out of bounds and did not directly relate to budgetary measures.

Even so, Reconciliation has been used to pass a variety of bills by the Senate under the majority of both parties. George W. Bush used reconciliation to enact three major tax cuts. As time has gone on, reconciliation has become less controversial and a more accepted legislative process.

Although many Republicans were angry at the use of reconciliation to pass the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 even though reconciliation has been used more often by Republican presidents. Reconciliation also occurs during times of divided government, when the President and the majority of Congress are of different political parties.

The use of reconciliation regarding the recent health care bill drew criticism from politicians, voters, and journalists but, why? In a government that is largely criticized for being slow to reach decisions and take action, reconciliation simply brought a prompt and decisive end to the health care debate.

As Obama’s first major accomplishment in office gathered enough votes to pass, reconciliation ensured that there would be no filibuster and no endless stalling in congress.  

Reconciliation also allows for a bill to be passed with a simple majority in Senate, 51 votes as opposed to 60. Some argue that in needing just a few less votes, those drafting bills will attempt to please their base fully because there is no need to sway the moderates.

Then again, in the case of the health care bill it was clear that the republicans were not going to be persuaded in the least and several fixes were proposed to the bill anyway that would need to be enacted in reconciliation. And let's not forget, George W. Bush passed his tax cuts with less votes than the 2010 health care bill.

What it all comes down to is reconciliation is a process used to pass a bill related to the budget and avoid filibuster. Reconciliation allows for the review and discussion of a bill for 20 hours. Reconciliation is often thought of as controversial even though it has become a more common procedure in passing budget measures since the 1980’s.

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