Bills
| 3.23.22

Democrats’ Resolution to Use Budget Reconciliation for a $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill (S. Con. Res. 14)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. Con. Res. 14?

(Updated March 21, 2022)

This budget resolution would trigger the budget reconciliation process for FY2022 and establish a budgetary target for committees to draft a $3.5 trillion spending package partially offset by tax increases such that the reconciliation bill would increase the deficit by up to $1.75 trillion. It isn’t structured as a typical budget resolution, which would serve as a 10-year budget blueprint, but is primarily intended to give Congress the ability to use reconciliation for a spending bill. A breakdown of how spending targets would be allocated among committees can be found below.

The resolution would set the following deficit increase targets for committees’ reconciliation legislation:

  • Agriculture: $135 billion

  • Banking: $332 billion

  • Commerce: $83 billion

  • Energy & Natural Resources: $198 billion

  • Environment & Public Works: $67 billion

  • Finance: -$1 billion (e.g. at least $1 billion in deficit reduction)

  • Foreign Relations:

  • Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: $726 billion

  • Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs: $37 billion

  • Indian Affairs: $20.5 billion

  • Judiciary: $107 billion

  • Small Business: $25 billion

  • Veterans Affairs: $18 billion

If adopted by both chambers of Congress, this legislation would allow congressional committees to report legislation to the Budget Committee, which would compile an omnibus reconciliation bill including the provisions that increase the deficit by $1.75 trillion. That bill would have to satisfy reconciliation rules, would be subject to amendment on the floor of each chamber, and could pass the Senate with a simple majority without being subject to the legislative filibuster.

ADOPTED AMENDMENTS

  • Kennedy #3753 - Offered by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to maintain the current tax treatment of like kind exchanges.
  • Hagerty #3742 - Offered by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to provide resources to detain and deport a higher number of unauthorized immigrants who have been convicted of a crime.
  • Daines #3292 - Offered by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prevent tax increases on small businesses.
  • Lee #3141 - Offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund for studying and providing tax equivalency under the payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) program.
  • Marshall #3797 - Offered by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to protect migrants and local communities against COVID-19.
  • Hoeven #3243 - Offered by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to improve the reliability of the electrical grid and prevent blackouts by using fossil fuels when needed.
  • Hawley #2734 - Offered by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to provide for the hiring of 100,000 new law enforcement officers.
  • Cotton #3680 - Offered by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in pre-kindergarten programs and elementary and secondary schools.
  • Moran #3795 - Offered by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to provide for immigration enforcement and address the humanitarian crisis at the border.
  • Baldwin #3648 - Offered by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), this amendment would establish a reserve fund related to Great Lakes ice-breaking operational improvements.
  • Wyden #3805 - Offered by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund related to ensuring robust, secure, and humane supply chains by prohibiting the use of federal funds to purchase materials, technology, and critical minerals produced, manufactured, or mined with forced labor.
  • Sullivan #3627 - Offered by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prohibit renewal energy projects receiving federal funds and subsidies from purchasing materials, technology, and critical minerals produced in China.
  • Lankford #3792 - Offered by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prohibit federal funding for abortion.
  • Young #3444 - Offered by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), this amendment would prevent tax increases that violate President Biden’s repeated promise to not impose a single penny in tax increases on people making less than $400,000 per year.
  • Scott (FL) #3383 - Offered by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prevent U.S. tax dollars from benefiting terrorist organizations such as Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
  • Ernst #3115 - Offered by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prohibit or limit the issuance of costly Clean Air Act permit requirements on farmers and ranchers in the U.S. or the imposition of new federal methane requirements.
  • Fischer #3128 - Offered by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), this amendment would means-test electric vehicle tax credits to ensure high-income individuals do not get government subsidies to buy expensive luxury cars.
  • Braun #3114 - Offered by Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to remove the American Rescue Plan’s prohibition against states and territories lowering their taxes.
  • Boozman #3103 - Offered by Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund related to policies or legislation to prohibit the Dept. of Agriculture from making fossil fuel-burning power plants ineligible for financing.
  • Capito #3284 - Offered by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to support or expedite the deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies.
  • Klobuchar #3731 - Offered by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), this amendment would establish a reserve fund to honor the law enforcement personnel who defended Congress and the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
  • Tuberville #3113 - Offered by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to decrease federal funding for local jurisdictions that defund the police.
  • Rubio #3097 - Offered by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund related to facilitating internet service to Cuban citizens who’ve been deprived of the free flow of information by the illegitimate communist Cuban regime.
  • Cramer #3105 - Offered by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), this amendment would prohibit the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating rules or guidance that ban hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”), which is used in the extraction of oil and natural gas.
  • Wyden #3365 - Offered by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to protect the privacy of American taxpayer and small business tax information while only reporting large financial account balances to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure tax evaders pay what they owe.
  • Hassan-Young #3278 - Offered by Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Todd Young (R-IN), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to promote U.S. competitiveness and innovation by supporting research and development.
  • Thune #3106 - Offered by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), this amendment would protect generationally-owned family farms, ranches, and businesses from the “double death tax” so that they can transfer ownership or operations to family members based on the same tax principles that existed when operations began.
  • Barrasso #3055 - Offered by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), this amendment would establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to prohibit funding for the Green New Deal.

Argument in favor

This budget resolution will allow Democrats to pass a $3.5 trillion spending plan through Congress on a party-line basis by using the reconciliation process. Democrats’ reconciliation bill will be one of the most transformative bills since the New Deal by providing universal paid leave, making community college tuition-free, addressing climate change, and much more.

Argument opposed

Congress has already spent a lot of money over the past year on a bipartisan basis for COVID relief and is about to do so again on infrastructure. Between that and Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bill from the spring, another $3.5 trillion is too much and could stymie the economic recovery by fueling more inflation and raising taxes on businesses and job creators.

Impact

Congressional committees; and members of Congress.

Cost of S. Con. Res. 14

As a budget resolution, this bill would not directly authorize any spending.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) offered the following statement on the introduction of this budget resolution to use reconciliation to pass Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending plan:

“The $3.5 trillion Budget Resolution that I am introducing today will allow the Senate to move forward on a reconciliation bill that will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s. It will also put the U.S. in a global leadership position to combat climate change and make our planet healthy and habitable for future generations. Further, and importantly, this legislation will create millions of good paying jobs as we address the long-neglected needs of working families and saving the planet. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, this is a budget that will end the days of billionaires and large, profitable corporations not paying a nickel in federal income taxes.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) offered the following remarks in opposition to Democrats’ spending plan on the Senate floor:

“Overall inflation has risen at the fastest rate in nearly thirteen years. Core inflation’s hit its highest level in almost thirty years. Families are getting hit by higher prices everywhere — from the grocery store, to the gas station, to their housing costs. Small businesses have had trouble reopening because would-be workers are getting a government bonus to stay home. So the country is still working through the side effects of the borrowing and spending the Democrats forced through back in the spring. But Democrats don’t just want to refill their socialist prescription. They want to double the dose. According to what they just released, Democrats want to unite behind Chairman Sanders’ resolution to spend a staggering $4.2 trillion more dollars. Of course, outside experts estimate the real cost will be even higher still. If it’s even close to fully offset, as they claim it is, this seems almost certain to be the largest peacetime tax hike on record.”


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: photogism via Flickr / Creative Commons)