![]() Republicans tried and failed to use reconciliation to repeal large parts of the Affordable Care Act in 20. It also played a big role in shaping the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Since its first use in 1980, reconciliation has been used to enact 22 bills as of April 2021 (four others were passed but vetoed by the president), including such significant pieces of legislation as major deficit reduction bills in the 1980s and 1990s, welfare reform in 1996, the Bush tax cuts in 20, the Trump tax cuts in 2017, and the American Rescue Plan under Joe Biden. Because Democrats have 50 seats in the Senate-plus a Democratic vice president-reconciliation is a way to get a tax-and-spending bill to the president’s desk even if all 50 Republicans oppose it. Reconciliation is, essentially, a way for Congress to enact legislation on taxes, spending, and the debt limit with only a majority (51 votes, or 50 if the vice president breaks a tie) in the Senate, avoiding the threat of a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome. ![]() When and why does Congress use reconciliation? With the Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, 50 each, giving Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote, there is a lot of attention to a legislative process for getting tax and spending bills through the Senate known as reconciliation.
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