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Byrd Rule expected to bring scrutiny to House reconciliation plan

The director of the Gardner Agricultural Policy Program at the University of Illinois says several aspects of the House-passed budget reconciliation package are likely to face more scrutiny in the U.S. Senate.

Jonathan Coppess says the Byrd Rule, named for Senator Robert Byrd, holds the upper chamber to stricter guidelines.

“It says you cannot have anything in reconciliation legislation that’s extraneous to the budget because in the Senate, reconciliation allows you to bypass the filibuster.”  He says, “The way they contain the potential disruption to the Senate’s operation is that they’ve limited what you can put in it.”

He tells Brownfield, “I think that an awful lot of what’s in the House bill is going to struggle to get by the Byrd Rule, like reference prices, for example.”  He says, “These are policy changes. These are not necessarily budgetary components, even though they obviously have a budgetary impact.”

Coppess says a package that passes the Byrd Rule would then only need 51 votes to pass the Senate.

AUDIO: Jonathan Coppess – University of Illinois