Big Picture: Senate Majority Leader Schumer Succeeds in Expanding Reconciliation

To keep our members abreast of the broader political landscape, we share this reporting by Politico Pro. Additional reconciliation bills could give ANCOR more opportunities to advance our policy priorities by offering more legislative vehicles.

“Democrats can pass another major piece of legislation — such as President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan — by revisiting the budget process they used to approve his coronavirus relief package without Republican support, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Monday.

Schumer’s interpretation of the ruling from the Senate parliamentarian, the upper chamber’s official adviser on procedural matters, could give Democrats significantly more opportunities to push their legislative priorities past a filibuster.

The decision, as read by Schumer, represents a major expansion of the reconciliation process that allows passage of some bills with a simple Senate majority. That stretch of reconciliation empowers any party in full control of Washington to theoretically use the tool as often as they want, if Schumer decides to follow through on using the budget process to pass Biden’s infrastructure plan, which he has not yet done.”