The Senate MP issued a ruling Monday evening paving the way for the unrestricted use of a budget procedure to bypass the legislative filibuster.
Elizabeth MacDonough’s statement – largely unknown to the public – could change the way Washington operates and give Democrats significant leeway to move their agenda forward over the next two years.
Here are five reasons the decision is a game changer.
Biden can potentially get a lot more done without GOP support
The most immediate change resulting from the MP’s decision is that President Biden
Joe Biden Joe Biden’s Surprising Presidency The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden, McConnell Agree Vaccines, Clash Over Infrastructure Republican Battle With MLB Steps Up MORE suddenly has more options to pass large chunks of his agenda, even with a 50-50 split in the Senate, and Vice President Harris’ breakthrough.
“It’s important because it gives us a little bit more flexibility – we don’t have to put everything in one package,” said Senate Committee on Budgets Chairman Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden’s infrastructure plan sparks definition debate Sunday shows – Infrastructure in the spotlight Bernie Sanders goes after Elon Musk because he wants to explore space MORE (I-Vt.) Said Monday night on MSNBC.
Budget reconciliation is a process that a legislative filibuster can bypass, but it must be linked to an annual budget resolution.
At the start of his term, Biden saw three options for using the budget solution. The first, using the 2021 resolution that Congress didn’t bother to approve before the fiscal year began in October, was used for the $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 exemption bill. The second would be tied to fiscal 2022, and a third could potentially be used next year, ahead of fiscal 2023, but before Democrats face by-elections that could lead to them losing control of both chambers in Congress.
The new ruling means that Biden could theoretically go back as often as he wants to change the budget resolution to adopt more policies, regardless of the fiscal year and what happens to the budget.
For example, if it’s easier to break down the infrastructure package into four separate bills, or if he wants to pass additional COVID-19 relief, increase corporate taxes, or change the age for Medicare – all without Republican backing – he now has that of the parliamentarian. bless to do this through atonement, or at least try.
It further affects the strength of the filibuster
Progressives have pushed hard for the Senate majority leader Charles Schumer
Chuck Schumer From steel to fiberglass, libraries are American infrastructure What should a moderate Democrat do when it comes to the Iran nuclear deal? Gun control proponents applaud Biden’s financing plan, but say MORE needs to be done (DN.Y.) to ignore the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold needed to move most legislation forward.
The ruling could take some of the wind out of their sails as it makes it easier for the ruling party to advance legislation with a simple majority in the Senate.
Right now, that’s the case with Democrats, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House. In the future, it will provide similar opportunities to Republicans, who were in the same position in 2017 and could do again in the future.
But critics of the filibuster are likely to be dissatisfied given the strict limitations of the types of legislation that can be fostered through reconciliation.
While the budget solution is ideal for changing taxes, benefits, certain health parameters, and even large-scale investments, it encounters problems not directly related to deficits.
The restrictions on which policies are off limits to reconciliation, collectively known as the Byrd Rule, require that any policy not be “merely incidental” to the budgetary implications, an appeal made by the MP on a case-by-case basis.
At the end of February, she ruled that an increase in the minimum wage was not causing it. Similar statements can be made as Democrats seek to promote labor rights law, such as the PRO law, gun laws, voting rights, and immigration reform, all of which are party priorities.
To get one of them, they must either ignore the filibuster or seek support from 10 Republican senators.
It gives even more power to Sen. Joe Manchin
Joe Manchin The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden, McConnell Agree Vaccines, Clash Over Infrastructure Manchin Asks CDC To Investigate West Virginia HIV Outbreak Senate MP to Get Democrats Bypass GOP Filibuster on Two More Bills MORE
In an equally divided Senate, Democrats cannot afford any apostasy in passing legislation through reconciliation.
No senator was more willing to use that power than Senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.), the most conservative Democrat in the room.
Manchin says the minimum wage should only rise to $ 11 an hour, instead of the $ 15 that the majority of his party is pursuing, and went against Biden’s plan to pay for infrastructure by increasing corporate tax from 21 percent to 28 percent .
He said he would oppose an increase of more than 25 percent, and made no bones about his position.
“If I don’t vote for it, it’s not going anywhere,” he said Monday. “So we’ll have some influence here.”
Manchin has proven that he means business. He hit the nail in the coffin of the nominee for the White House budget director Neera Teeth
Neera Tanden2024 Hopeful GOP White House leads opposition to Biden cabinet White House delays release of budget plan Biden says cabinet ‘looks like America’ at first meeting MORE when he said he wouldn’t vote to confirm her.
But others are catching wind of the game and starting to raise their voices, meaning it might be harder to keep the 50-member ideologically diverse caucus united.
Her. Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner Lawmakers Grapple With Capitol Security After Latest Attack Senate Democrats Reveal Hillicon Valley International Tax Plan: Parler Alleges FBI Warned About Threats Before Capitol Riot | Warner Pressures Zuckerberg to Address Vaccine Misinformation on Facebook, Instagram | American schools are increasingly resuming personal learning (D-Va.), A centrist, also said significant changes would be needed for Biden to succeed in his infrastructure plan, while the progressive Sen. Ron Wyden
Ronald (Ron) Lee Wyden Senate MP to have Democrats bypass GOP filibuster on two more bills. Senate Democrats Reveal International Tax Plan Worried About China? Make it easier to look MORE elsewhere (D-Ore.), Who heads the finance committee, released his own version of international corporate tax law that took a slightly different approach from Biden’s.
It decouples the legislative program from budgeting
Since the filibuster solution is embedded in the budget resolution, the calendar for passing legislation was somewhat linked to the regular credit process for government funding.
The reconciliation bill stems from the same budget resolution that sets overall levels of expenditure for the next fiscal years and outlines how much will be spent on defense and non-defense priorities.
This complicated the timeline for approving reconciliation accounts, as the overall spending levels for the year would have to be agreed before the budget is approved.
That would be a tough lift. Biden has yet to propose his own overall spending figures for next year, something every other incoming government has done in mid-March. His budget office said the numbers would be released in the last week of March, only to delay their rollout.
Once the overall budget is agreed, Congress must go through the lengthy process of 12 separate spending accounts – with a 60-vote threshold in the Senate requiring GOP support – by September 30, when the fiscal year ends, or face with a possible failure.
But the MP’s statement that Congress can change the resolution means that the two are no longer linked, remove one calendar obstacle, or at least eliminate the need for other complicated workarounds.
It takes the pressure off the debt ceiling
One potentially catastrophic gadfly that has plagued Washington, and the Democrats in particular, various governments in the past is the debt cap, or debt ceiling.
Even after Congress has passed its spending and tax policies, set deficits and funding requirements, the Treasury department is legally barred from borrowing more than a certain limit.
If Congress failed to act to suspend or increase that limit when debt hits it, the country would default on its debt, potentially triggering a global financial crisis.
Republicans have repeatedly used the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip, particularly in 2011 when the then chairman John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner MSNBC host: Boehner goes after GOP ‘crazy’ now is ‘too little too late’ Sean Hannity responds to former speaker Boehner: ‘What’s with all the crying John?’ Boehner on Bachmann: Right-wing media turned ‘people who used to be marginal characters into powerful media stars’ MORE (R-Ohio) pushed for a deal to limit spending to increase the debt limit, resulting in a 10-year plan to limit spending that Congress subsequently set aside annually.
But good news for Democrats: Congress can raise the debt limit through a budget reconciliation bill.
The current suspension of the debt limit will end in August. The Treasury Department can buy a few extra weeks of time by using internal “ extraordinary measures, ” but ultimately by then the Democrats should have either finalized their infrastructure bill or negotiated with Republicans to raise the limit.
Democrats had wondered if they could simply issue separate reconciliation bills in the three areas the process governs: spending, taxes, and the debt limit.
The MP’s ruling means they no longer have to worry about that approach, nor about how the timing of the debt ceiling plays into their infrastructure plans.