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Summary

The budget reconciliation process is one of the chief tools used by Congress during the past quarter-century to implement major changes in budget policy. Following a brief overview of the budget reconciliation process and the current budget policy context, this report provides information on the consideration of budget reconciliation legislation in 2005, during the first session of the 109th Congress. Reconciliation is a two-stage process. First, reconciliation instructions are included in the budget resolution, directing the appropriate committees to develop legislation achieving the desired budgetary outcomes. The second step involves consideration of the resultant reconciliation legislation by the House and Senate under expedited procedures. Consideration of the FY2006 budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 95, began in the House and Senate in March and came to a conclusion on April 28, 2005, with the House and Senate approving the conference report on the measure. The FY2006 budget resolution included reconciliation instructions expected to lead to the development of three different reconciliation measures: (1) an omnibus spending bill, involving recommendations from eight House and eight Senate committees, that would reduce mandatory outlays by about $35 billion over FY2006-FY2010; (2) a revenue bill that would reduce revenues by $70 billion over the same period; and (3) a bill that would increase the limit on the public debt by $781 billion. The omnibus spending bill would be reported, without any substantive revision, by the Budget Committees, while the revenue and debt-limit bills would be reported by the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. Following a surge in spending for relief and reconstruction efforts associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Republican leaders in the House and Senate announced plans to achieve additional savings in mandatory outlays through the reconciliation process, and to pursue additional savings in annual appropriations acts and through other means. By informal agreement, the schedule for the beginning of reconciliation actions was delayed from September into late October in order to accommodate the need to address hurricane-related relief legislation and to achieve offsets for some of the additional spending. The Senate Budget Committee reported the spending reconciliation bill, S. 1932 (the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005) on October 27 and began its consideration on October 31. According to cost estimates prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, the eight Senate committees met or exceeded their reconciliation instructions, with net outlay savings of $39.114 billion over FY2006FY2010. The House Budget Committee is schedule to meet on the spending reconciliation bill on November 3. According to CBO, the reconciliation submissions of the eight instructed House committees achieve outlay savings of $53.929 billion over five years, which exceeds by about $4 billion the revised level of savings requested by the House leadership. This report will be developed as developments warrant.

Related Legislation:
• S.1932
• S.95

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