[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1614-S1615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECONCILIATION
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I seek recognition today to address the
subject of reconciliation.
I have previously spoken about gridlock in Congress and the negative
impact it is having on our stature internationally. We are unable to
confirm judicial and executive nominations which is paralyzing the work
of the Senate and putting the government's ability to confront the
Nation's challenges at risk. It slows the judicial process and leaves
many posts empty, including those in defense and national security.
The most central issue at the moment, however, is health care reform.
Health care reform passed both the House of Representatives and the
Senate. In the Senate, it passed by a supermajority vote of 60-39. The
only issue before us now is aligning the already-passed Senate version
with the already-passed House version. Despite its passage by 60-39,
Republicans are still trying to stop this bill by threatening to
filibuster the amendments needed to bring it into a condition that will
pass the House of Representatives.
These tactics, which amount to a minority of Senators halting a bill
that has overwhelming support, can be overcome by the often used
reconciliation process. The reconciliation process is an optional
procedure that operates as an adjunct to the budget resolution process
established by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. The reconciliation
process has been used by nearly every Congress since its enactment to
pass a vast array of legislation.
In their endless efforts to circumvent the will of the majority and
thwart the passage of much needed and much supported health care
legislation, the Republicans have launched a campaign against the
reconciliation process, making it out to be an illegitimate tactic that
the Democrats have invented to pass health care legislation. That is
simply untrue.
A look back in time, however, shows that the very same Republicans
who are now denouncing the use of reconciliation were the very same
Republicans who were defending its use not too long ago.
When he was chair of the Budget Committee, Senator Judd Gregg, in
defending the use of reconciliation to try to pass an amendment
allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2005
said, ``Reconciliation is a rule of the Senate set up under the Budget
Act. It has been used before for purposes exactly like this on numerous
occasions. The fact is all this rule of the Senate does is allow a
majority of the Senate to take a position and pass a piece of
legislation, support that position. Is there something wrong with
`majority rules'? I don't think so.''
When using reconciliation to pass Medicare spending, Senator Gregg
said, ``You can't get 60 votes because the party on the other side of
the aisle simply refuses to do anything constructive in this area.''
Senator Chuck Grassley, when defending the use of reconciliation to
pass the Bush tax cuts, said that reconciliation was ``the way it will
have to be done in order to get it done at all.''
Last year Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said of Democrats using
reconciliation, ``It's their right. They did win the election. We don't
like it because we don't like what looks like the outcome.''
Republicans are implying that reconciliation is a new idea, and has
never been used to pass significant legislation. The fact is, since
1980, Congress has sent 22 reconciliation bills to the President. Of
those, 16 enacted into law occurred under Republican majority control.
The 16 reconciliation bills created with a Republican majority
included:
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Resultant
FY Majority reconciliation act(s) Veto?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1981................................. Republican............. Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1980 (P.L. 96-499).
1982................................. Republican............. Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1981 (P.L. 97-35).
1983................................. Republican............. Tax Equity and Fiscal None.
Responsibility Act of
1982 (P.L. 97-248).
Republican............. Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1982 (P.L. 97-253).
1984................................. Republican............. Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1983 (P.L. 98-270).
1986................................. Republican............. Consolidated Omnibus None.
Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-
272).
1996................................. Republican............. Balanced Budget Act of Vetoed by Clinton.
1995.
1997................................. Republican............. Personal Responsibility None.
and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of
1996 (P.L. 104-193).
1998................................. Republican............. Balanced Budget Act of None.
1997 (P.L. 105-33).
Republican............. Taxpayer Relief Act of None.
1997 (P.L. 105-34).
2000................................. Republican............. Taxpayer Refund and Vetoed by Clinton.
Relief Act of 1999
(H.R. 2488).
2001................................. Republican............. Marriage Tax Relief Vetoed by Clinton.
Reconciliation Act of
2000 (H.R. 4810).
2002................................. Republican............. Economic Growth and Tax None.
Relief Reconciliation
Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-
16).
2004................................. Republican............. Jobs and Growth Tax None.
Relief Reconciliation
Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-
27).
2006................................. Republican............. Deficit Reduction Act None.
of 2005 (P.L. 109-171).
Republican............. Tax Increase Prevention None.
and Reconciliation Act
of 2005 (P.L. 109-222).
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[[Page S1615]]
The six reconciliation bills created with a Democratic majority
included:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resultant
Fiscal year Majority reconciliation act(s) Veto?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1987................................. Democrat............... Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1986 (P.L. 99-509).
1988................................. Democrat............... Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1987 (P.L. 100-203).
1990................................. Democrat............... Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1989 (P.L. 101-239).
1991................................. Democrat............... Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1990 (P.L. 101-508).
1994................................. Democrat............... Omnibus Budget None.
Reconciliation Act of
1993 (P.L. 103-66).
2008................................. Democrat............... College Cost Reduction Vetoed by Clinton.
and Access Act of 2007
(P.L. 110-84).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This could not be further from the truth. The new Reagan
administration and Republican majority in 1981 that first used
reconciliation to pass major legislation--Reagan's tax cuts--and used
it again in 1982 to cut spending and roll back some tax cuts. A
Republican-controlled Senate also used reconciliation to pass the 1996
welfare overhaul, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Medicare
Advantage and COBRA.
Republicans have used reconciliation many times to pass partisan
bills. For example, the 1995 Balanced Budget Act, the 2001 Bush tax
cuts, the 2003 Bush tax cuts, the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, and the
2006 Tax Relief Extension Act were all passed in reconciliation and
with small vote margins. Two of these passed only with the tie-breaking
intervention of Vice President Dick Cheney, and Democrats got more
votes for the health bill than any of these measures received.
Republicans have also complained that reconciliation is not proper
for a health care bill. However, over the past 20 years, reconciliation
has been used to pass almost all major pieces of health care
legislation, including COBRA; the Children's Health Insurance Program;
the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires
hospitals that take Medicaid and Medicare to treat anyone entering an
ER; and welfare reform, which disentangled Medicaid from welfare.
Further, the health care bill has already passed with 60 votes. It is
only the amendments that need to pass via reconciliation. The 2009
budget resolution instructed both Houses of Congress to enact health
care reform. Again, comprehensive health legislation has already passed
both Chambers, garnering a majority in the House and a supermajority in
the Senate. Since the House and the Senate versions are slightly
different, using reconciliation to implement the budget resolution by
reconciling the two bills follows established procedure. Reconciliation
will be used only to pass a small package of fixes to the original
health bills that are necessary to align the House and Senate versions.
This is actually less ambitious than the usual reconciliation process,
which usually applies to entire bills, not just small fixes.
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