Why does the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act provide a special budgetary mechanism called reconciliation?
CBA created the option of the reconciliation process to give Congress a tool to make it more likely that Congress will enact laws that will bring revenue, spending, and debt-limit levels into conformity with the fiscal policy of the nation set out in the budget resolution. Do reconciliation instructions include specific policy directives? No. Remember reconciliation is a budgetary mechanism. Budget resolutions do not include policy directives, and section 310 of the Congressional Budget Act provides that reconciliation instructions shall include only numerical targets to achieve desired budgetary outcomes by a certain date. How a committee chooses to comply to meet the budgetary amounts for fiscal changes is limited only by the jurisdiction of the committee. Why has reconciliation, especially in the context of health care reform, been labeled “a parliamentary maneuver” and “controversial strong-arm tactic?” The expedited procedures of reconciliation (non-debatable motion to proceed, on
