Reconciliation will be hard to derail

March 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Democrats are tying the fate of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul to a fast-track process that will make the bill tough for Republicans to derail in the Senate. But GOP lawmakers will still be able to force votes and make arguments that could give them ammunition for November’s congressional elections.

Here are questions and answers about the reconciliation process, which has itself become controversial as the health-care debate enters its end stage.

Q. Why is it called reconciliation?

A. The process was established in the 1974 law that requires Congress to pass a federal budget at the start of each year. Some years, the budget will instruct Congress to pass legislation that “reconciles” tax and spending laws with the policies laid out in that budget and triggers a process that makes it easier and quicker for lawmakers to do that.

Q. How does reconciliation make the process simpler?

A. It’s a blunt instrument that makes it easier for the majority party to win. It has little impact in the House, where the majority usually has its way. But in the Senate, it prevents the minority party from using a filibuster, which lets it block legislation with just 41 of the chamber’s 100 votes.

Q. What does that mean for the health-care drive?

A. Democrats want the House to send Obama a huge, nearly $1 trillion measure that the Senate approved in December reshaping the country’s health-care system. At about the same time, both chambers would send him a second, narrower measure making changes Democrats want in the first bill, such as removing federal Medicaid aid solely for Nebraska. That second measure would be the reconciliation bill.

Democrats have 59 Senate votes, and all Republicans are expected to vote “no.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would be able to let nine nervous Democrats oppose the bill and still get the 50 votes he’d need to win, with the tie broken by Vice President Joe Biden.

Q. Is that the only advantage reconciliation provides?

A. It also limits Senate debate to just 20 hours, rather than the potentially unlimited time allowed normally.

Q. What weapons do Republicans have?

A. They can claim that certain provisions violate the budget act, which if the Senate parliamentarian agrees would strip those items from the legislation. The constraints include the “Byrd rule,” which requires that language in a reconciliation bill — and amendments to it — be chiefly aimed at revising spending and tax laws.

The top Republican on the Budget Committee, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in an interview he has about a dozen points of order he can use to “punch holes” in the bill.

Should the parliamentarian uphold such a challenge, Democrats would need 60 votes to keep the language in the bill — unlikely in the partisanly charged health-care fight. Knowing this, House and Senate Democratic leaders are trying to produce a bill that won’t be vulnerable to such challenges.

Q. Can Republicans try to amend the legislation?

A. Absolutely, and theor- etically, they can offer an unlimited number of amendments. After the 20 hours of debate have expired, they begin a so-called vote-a-rama, an exhausting marathon in which senators vote on amendments with little or no debate or interruption.

Some past reconciliation bills have seen scores of amendments handled this way. Conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said in an interview that Republicans “won’t have any trouble having hundreds of amendments,” though he said each would make a valid point and not be aimed at delay.