Budget Reconciliation is back on. The Senate voted Thursday night 52-48 to proceed with a framework for a government spending bill – which will include making the tax cuts from Donald Trump’s first term permanent – that can bypass both the 60-vote requirement of the upper chamber’s filibuster rule and any interference from the Senate Parliamentarian.
Democrats were outraged and worked hard all day Friday and into Saturday morning to weigh it down with amendments – all for naught, as the Senate then voted 51-48 to pass the concurrent resolution early Saturday morning without a whopping 20 amendments that Democrats tried and failed to include. But if leftist lawmakers want to lay the blame somewhere, they need to look no further than their own side of the aisle.
Late Nights and Long Days
After Thursday’s mostly party-line vote, Senate Democrats – and Rand Paul of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against moving forward – began the process of fighting the House GOP’s framework through the amendment process. One attempt after another failed – again, mostly along party lines. The Senate passed one amendment, which established a deficit-neutral reserve to protect Medicare and Medicaid, on Friday, April 4. From there, Democrats introduced nine more that were shot down, usually with just one or two Republicans supporting, if any. This continued into the wee hours, with ten more rejected amendments between midnight and 2:45 a.m. Eastern.
Sen. Paul introduced an amendment of his own, hoping to update the debt limit instructions. It didn’t win any more support than the others. Indeed, it managed to earn the scorn of both sides, losing 5-94 with just one Democrat not voting.
Going Nuclear
For regular readers of Liberty Nation News, the terms budget reconciliation, filibuster, and nuclear option probably aren’t new. Still, let’s cover the basics. The House of Representatives passes legislation by a simple majority – meaning 50% of the representatives plus one. Technically speaking, the Senate also only needs a simple majority to pass legislation, but it does have a special rule called the filibuster, which allows any senator to stall the process and requires a 60-vote threshold to end debate (a process called invoking cloture) and force that final vote. And remember, that last vote needs only a simple majority.
The idea behind the filibuster is to protect the rights of the minority. Similar logic fueled the supermajority requirements for amending the Constitution or overriding a presidential veto. It’s safeguards like these that really show the difference between the Democracy many on the political left say the US is and the Constitutional Republic it really is.
Over the years, there has been a bit of a tit-for-tat on “nuking” the Senate rules and traditions – and it all started with Democrats. Remember that point; it will prove relevant later in this tale. On November 21, 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, invoked the so-called “Nuclear Option” to exert majority control, ending the filibuster for confirmation votes on presidential nominations (all but the Supreme Court, that is). Ever since, presidential nominations have only required a simple majority for confirmation.
Flash forward to April 6, 2017, when a Republican majority was unable to reach the 60-vote requirement to confirm Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch. Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, chose to go nuclear, removing the filibuster on SCOTUS confirmations as well.
Running Around the Rules of Reconciliation
Now, back to budget reconciliation. Normally, this process can be passed by a simple majority, but there are some restrictions. According to the Byrd Rule, everything in a reconciliation bill must be budget related. No non-budget legislation can be slipped in. It also prohibits anything that increases the federal deficit after a ten-year period or that makes changes to Social Security. There is also a limited number of times per year the process can be used to avoid the filibuster.
In 2021, Senate Democrats held a slim majority and wanted to pass broad immigration reform using the budget reconciliation process. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate’s rules interpreter and a Democrat herself, rejected three pitches from her colleagues, arguing that they all violated the Byrd Rule. Democrats – her own party mates – responded by discussing either going around her or removing and replacing her with someone more pliable. Ultimately, they did not go “nuclear” on her, but the option was floated and seriously considered. MacDonough did, however, reinterpret the rules to allow more instances of budget reconciliation, giving then-President Joe Biden and the Democrats more legislative wins than they could have possibly achieved otherwise.
Now, in 2025, Senate Republicans are considering a similar move in order to make Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. If doing so would increase the deficit over a ten-year span, it would violate the Byrd rule. Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), however, feel they can bypass a ruling from the parliamentarian entirely.
“We think the law is very clear, and ultimately the budget committee chairman makes that determination,” Thune told reporters on Tuesday. So long as Republicans hold that line and Graham either determines it won’t add to the deficit, interprets it as continuing a current policy, or both, then the GOP-led Senate can go on to include it in the budget reconciliation bill. And if Democrats push MacDonough to issue guidance on it, as they very well may, Republicans will roll right along and vote anyway.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the GOP is going to break the Senate’s rules and precedents by ignoring the parliamentarian. “That would be going nuclear, and it shows that Republicans are so hell-bent on giving these tax breaks to the billionaires that they’re willing to break any rules, norms and things they promised they wouldn’t do,” Schumer declared.
Republicans are being careful to avoid saying they’re overruling the parliamentarian, but declaring that she doesn’t get a say and then ignoring her if she does chime in isn’t all that different from what Democrats considered doing in 2021 when they held a slim majority and had a friendly president.
But will it work – or, for that matter, even be necessary? Time will tell. The Senate finished the night by voting 51-48 to pass their version of the House resolution, but that isn’t the final funding bill. It’s the “framework,” a concurrent resolution that recommends funding levels for Fiscal Year 2025 through 2034 and instructs 11 House committees to “submit legislation that will increase or decrease the deficit over FY-2025-FY2034 and increase the statutory debt limit by specified amounts.” It also requires the final spending package to include some deregulation and spending cuts.
Full funding for the government remains a goal rather than a reality – but after this morning’s vote, that GOP dream is one step closer to coming true.
