House-Passed Blueprint for $95 Billion Reconciliation Package Faces Unclear Path in Senate

By Kim Johnson, NLIHC Senior Policy Director

The White House is urging Senate Republicans to vote through a blueprint for a $95 billion budget reconciliation package before they adjourn for the August Recess at the end of the week. The bill would provide around $60 billion for defense, $13 billion for intelligence operations, $12 billion in farm relief, and $10 billion to assist with the administration of the “Safeguard American Vote Eligibility (SAVE) Act,” a voter suppression bill pushed by the White House and narrowly passed the House on July 22, with a final vote of 216-214. The blueprint, known as a “budget resolution,” must be adopted by both the House and Senate before committees can put together legislative text for the reconciliation package; any changes to the budget resolution made by the Senate will require the House to pass it again when they return from recess.  

“Reconciliation” is a special legislative procedure that allows a bill to pass in the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, rather than the 60 votes usually required. As a result, when one party controls the House, Senate, and White House, reconciliation can be used to pass a bill into law without any bipartisan support. In exchange for this leniency, federal lawmakers are limited in the kinds of provisions that can be included in a reconciliation bill, so that only laws that change mandatory spending (like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security), federal revenues (taxes), and/or the federal debt limit can be included.  

Despite pressure from the White House, it is not clear whether Senate Republicans have the votes needed to pass the resolution. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) stated her opposition to using reconciliation again and was the only Senate Republican to vote against the most recent reconciliation package that provided additional funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP; see Memo, 6/15).  

In addition, Senate lawmakers—including all Senate Democrats and Republican Senators Murkowski, Thom Tillis (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY)—have repeatedly voted against the “SAVE Act,” which NLIHC and the nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes campaign also strongly oppose. The complicated rules governing the budget reconciliation process mean that many of the proposals included in the “SAVE Act” could not be included in a reconciliation package and would instead need to pass through “regular order,” requiring at least 60 affirmative votes.