THE BUDGET RESOLUTION IN THE SENATE: SOME BASICS

In general, the budget resolution contains:
  • Aggregates for spending, revenues, Social Security, and debt levels in each year.
  • Functional totals for budget authority and outlays for each function in each year.
  • Reconciliation instructions.
  • Reserve funds, scorekeeping directives, and points of order.
  • Sense of the Senate/House language.
    302(a) committee allocations (in the conference report).
Floor consideration: Debate on the budget resolution is limited to 50 hours equally divided. Time used during voting does not count toward the 50 hour total. Debate on any amendment is limited to 2 hours equally divided. Debate on any second-degree amendment, debatable motion or appeal is limited to 1 hour equally divided. The Manager can always yield time off the bill in addition to the time reserved for an amendment, thereby extending the time an amendment is debated beyond the 1 or 2 hour limitation. After all time has run, Senators can still offer and vote on amendments; however, there is no time to debate them. In the past, the Senate has agreed, by UC, to allow short 1 or 2-min. statements preceding votes on amendments after time has run out.

Amendments cannot touch the resolution in two separate non-contiguous places unless rule is waived by a UC. There is an exception to this rule for amendments that change figures to maintain mathematical consistency.

Amendments can not amend language already amended. Such amendments are out of order; the point of order can be waived by a majority vote.

Section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act prohibits amendments to a budget resolution that are not germane. Relevancy is not enough to satisfy the germaneness test. Sixty votes are required to waive the point of order. An amendment is germane only if it strikes a provision, changes a number or date, states purely precatory language (such as findings or a sense of the Senate – but note that you need to use the "magic language" discussed below), and does not add any new subject matter or expand the existing subject matter.

During floor consideration (but not in committee markup), sense of the Senate amendments will be out of order as nongermane unless they contain the following phrase: "It is the sense of the Senate that the levels in this concurrent resolution assume..."

Debate on a budget resolution conference report is limited to 10 hours, equally divided. No amendments are in order. Motions to instruct conferees are in order only prior to the appointment of the conferees. Motions to recommit the conference report are in order only if the conference committee has not yet been dissolved. Action by either house of Congress on the conference report dissolves the conference committee, thereby preventing members of the other body from offering motions to recommit.