The U.S. Senate has begun budget reconciliation, a special legislative process used to quickly advance high-priority fiscal legislation. Created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, reconciliation allows for expedited consideration of certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation. The process is not subject to filibuster (obstruction of legislation requiring 60 votes to end, think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) which gives it a real advantage for getting to enaction.

Congress can pass up to three reconciliation bills per year, with each bill addressing the major topics of reconciliation: revenue, spending, and the federal debt limit. The Senate Budget Committee introduced a budget resolution and passed it out of committee on an 11-10 party line vote on February 12. The current bill under consideration in the Senate encompasses border security, defense and energy measures. Later would come a larger, more complex tax-focused bill.

After the package is passed out of committee, the Senate provides up to 50 legislative hours of debate on the bill before it can be opened to amendments. That brings us to today.

Today, the Senate will enter into a “vote-a-rama,” which is just as much fun as the name suggests! Vote-a-rama is a legislative procedure in the Senate that allows senators to propose an unlimited number of amendments to budget-related measures.

After brief debate, the amendments are each voted on in rapid succession. This is a part of the budget reconciliation process and is mainly used as a messaging platform. The amendments are drafted to force senators to take votes that would put them on the record supporting or opposing an issue.

Voting generally goes well into the wee hours of the night, unless there is a time agreement. Each of the dozens of amendments gets introduced, the sponsoring senator can speak for 30-seconds or one-minute, and then there is a ten-minute roll call vote. During the 2013 budget process, it took the Senate almost 16 hours to vote on 43 amendments.

Once all amendments have been dispensed with, there will be a simple majority vote on final passage. Once the package makes it through the Senate, it must then be sent to the House for consideration. The resolutions must match each other, and the House currently has a larger package which encompasses taxes as well. The two chamber leaders, along with the president, will need to work in the coming weeks on what can pass in both the House and the Senate.

AFSA staff have a CSPAN login just for moments like this. While none of the amendments hold the force of law, and this budget resolution is focused on immigration, we will be watching the floor tonight (and probably early tomorrow morning) to track whether any financial services messaging amendments are brought up and what the vote count is so that we can continue to focus our Congressional education efforts.