House Budget Would Provide Reconciliation Instructions For Potential Tax Changes

The House Budget Committee voted 20 to 16 on March 16 to approve a budget resolution that would give the House Ways and Means Committee authority to move tax legislation using reconciliation instructions.

The budget is generally a nonbinding framework for tax and spending priorities, but reconciliation instructions allow tax bills to avoid 60-vote procedural hurdles in the Senate. The reconciliation instructions in the new House budget would require any reconciliation bill to raise $1 billion or more, suggesting that the tax component of any reconciliation bill generally would need to be at least revenue neutral. The revenue-neutral instructions are consistent with the rest of the budget, which includes a policy statement promoting tax reform and a reserve fund meant to encourage revenue neutral tax reform.