Fact Sheet on Senate Budget Process: 97-695 GOV

The Senate's Byrd Rule Against Extraneous Matter in Reconciliation Measures

Robert Keith, Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Updated September 9, 1998

Summary

Reconciliation is an expedited process under the 1974 Congressional Budget Act used to change mainly entitlement and revenue laws in order to implement budget resolution policies. Although reconciliation is an optional process, Congress has used it in most years, beginning in 1980, as its principal deficit-reduction tool. In recent years, it also has been used to advance tax cuts. The Senate adopted the Byrd rule in 1985 as a means of curbing extraneous matter in reconciliation measures. It has been in effect for Senate consideration of 10 different reconciliation bills. The Byrd rule has been used with increasing frequency in recent years and has significantly affected the content of reconciliation legislation. Of the 47 actions taken under the Byrd rule during this period, 36 were successful in striking extraneous matter from legislation or preventing such matter from being added by amendment.(1)

Legislative History of the Byrd Rule

The Byrd rule originated on October 24, 1985, as an amendment offered by Senator Robert C. Byrd to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. The temporary rule was extended and modified over time and made permanent in 1990 as Section 313 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 644). The following laws and resolutions established and amended the Byrd rule:

• P.L. 99-272, Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, Section 20001 (100 Stat. 390-391), April 7, 1986;
• S.Res. 286 (99^th Congress, 1^st Session), December 19, 1985;
• S.Res. 509 (99^th Congress, 2^nd Session), October 16, 1986;
• P.L. 99-509, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, Section 7006 (100 Stat. 1949-1950), October 21, 1986;
• P.L. 100-119, Increasing the Statutory Limit on the Public Debt, Section 205 (101 Stat. 784-785), September 29, 1987; and
• P.L. 101-508, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, Section 13214 (104 Stat. 1388-621 through 623), November 5, 1990.

Features of the Byrd Rule

A Senator opposed to the inclusion of extraneous matter in reconciliation legislation may offer an amendment (or a motion to recommit with instructions) to strike the matter from the legislation or may raise a point of order against it under the Byrd rule. In general, a point of order authorized under the Byrd rule may be raised to strike extraneous matter already in the bill as reported or discharged (or in the conference report), or to prevent the incorporation of extraneous matter through the adoption of amendments or motions. A point of order may be raised against a single provision or two or more provisions (as designated by title or section number, or by page and line number), and may be raised against a single amendment or two or more amendments. The chair may sustain a point of order as to all provisions (or amendments) or only some of them.

Once material has been stricken from reconciliation legislation under the Byrd rule, it may not be offered again as an amendment. A motion to waive the Byrd rule, or to sustain an appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of order raised under the Byrd rule, requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the membership (60 Senators if no seats are vacant).

The Byrd rule defines matter to be extraneous in six cases: (1) if it does not produce a change in outlays or revenues; (2) if it produces an outlay increase or revenue decrease when the instructed committee is not in compliance with its instructions; (3) if it is outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure; (4) if it produces a change in outlays or revenues which is merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision; (5) if it would increase the deficit for a fiscal year beyond those covered by the reconciliation measure; and (6) if it recommends changes in Social Security.

The rule also provides certain exceptions to the definition of extraneous matter, including instances in which a provision mitigates direct effects clearly attributable to a provision changing outlays or revenues and both provisions together produce a net reduction in the deficit.

Implementation of the Byrd Rule: 1985-1997