November 18, 2024
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Via Fox News Digital: What Is Reconciliation, the Tool Republicans Want to Use to ‘Push the Outer Limits’ on Federal Policy?
Following the 2024 election, Republicans are poised to control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. That has driven interest in the budget reconciliation process.
Today, Fox News published an article explaining the budget reconciliation process and highlighting House Republicans’ reconciliation plans for the 119th Congress.
Read more to learn about the budget reconciliation process and House Republicans’ priorities.
Word on the Street:
Elizabeth Elkind, Via Fox News Digital:
- “GOP leaders have suggested they are planning a mammoth-sized bill to implement President-elect Trump’s tax policies, lower the federal deficit and enact conservative policies early next year.”
- “‘Though there are Senate rules limiting what we can fit in budget reconciliation, I want us to be bold and creative so we can include as many reforms in this package as possible,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., wrote to House Republicans earlier this month.”
- “‘Democrats expanded what is traditionally allowed in reconciliation, and we intend to do the same. Now is the time to go big to advance conservative policies that will make our country prosperous and secure again.’ Generally, reconciliation is only used once per year, and lawmakers usually reserve it for instances where they hold both houses of Congress.”
- “House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, whose committee will be at the forefront of crafting the reconciliation bill, told Fox News Digital he is already working with House GOP leaders and his Senate counterparts on the legislation.”
- “‘We’re going to push the outer limits to include as much pro-growth strategy as we can. One of those would be regulatory reform," Arrington said. "Another one will be border security and immigration reform.’”
- “The third goal Arrington raised was ‘to unravel the chokehold on domestic energy production.’ We have H.R. 2, and then we have H.R. 1, the two big legislative priorities for our conference – secure the border and unleash American energy,’ he said.”
- “‘I think the things in there that can be included in reconciliation and pass the Byrd rule. We're going to be aggressively advancing those policies.’ The ‘Byrd rule’ refers to the Senate parliamentarian weighing a reconciliation bill for what measures are relevant to budgetary and tax policy, and what must be removed.”
- “Democrats wanted to use reconciliation in 2021 to pass progressive immigration policies that would have included granting citizenship to millions of people, including those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.”
- “They also attempted to include a federal $15 minimum wage in a reconciliation bill – a charge led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. But the parliamentarian ruled against both of those proposals.”
- “‘We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of restoration to do on the fiscal side,’ Arrington said. ‘It's part pro-growth strategies, and the other is part bending the curve on spending, and especially focused on mandatory spending. And I think there are a lot of straightforward ways to do it, common sense things that the American people from both sides of the political aisle will say are long overdue.’”
More from the House Budget Committee:
Read Chairman Arrington’s statement on President Trump’s government efficiency commission HERE.
Read Chairman Arrington’s op-ed in the Daily Caller about President Trump’s government efficiency commission HERE.
