[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:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                       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).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[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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