The Senate may be preparing to take up a single-issue, health care budget package under the jurisdiction of a single committee — Finance. But the nature of the budget reconciliation process means the bill will be open for amendment on virtually any topic the original legislation was intended to address, from climate change to taxes to child care.
The unusual circumstances under which the reconciliation bill came together mean that senators can offer amendments during the upcoming “vote-a-rama” that extend far beyond the drug pricing and health insurance affordability measures expected to form the core of the Democrats’ bill.
The original fiscal 2022 budget resolution provided “instructions” to the Senate Finance panel that its part of the bill must lower deficits by at least $1 billion over a decade.
