ANSWER: A legislative process that may be used once a year when Congress passes a budget for that fiscal year, that allows a bill to be passed through the Senate with a simple majority vote. 

“We only have one opportunity to send a bill to the President’s desk with 51 votes and it’s this reconciliation tool. In a Republican House and Senate you can get a bill to the President’s desk that guts ObamaCare and defunds Planned Parenthood and the only ingredient missing to sign that into law is a Republican president. I think that’s a crystallizing message.” -Rep. Steve Scalise, December 2015

It’s time to actually put a bill on the President’s desk that guts ObamaCare and defunds abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood. This week, the House and Senate will do just that by employing a powerful tool called reconciliation. This is a strategy Rep. Scalise brought to the leadership table months ago, and he will continue leading the fight to utilize this once-a-year legislative process that kick-starts a bold, conservative agenda for 2016.

Congress passed a bipartisan budget agreement in May 2015, activating the reconciliation process. Reconciliation is a budgeting mechanism that allows Congressional Republicans to bypass a filibuster from Senate Democrats and put conservative priorities directly in front of the President. The House is using reconciliation at the beginning 2016 because it will set the stage for a repeal of ObamaCare as voters across the nation begin to select the nominees to be our next president.

To summarize, here are three reasons why this bill is so important:

  1. Forces the President’s hand– Reconciliation is an opportunity to avoid a filibuster from Senate Democrats and put conservative priorities directly on the President’s desk.
  2. Guts ObamaCare– Republicans have worked tirelessly to dismantle ObamaCare from the beginning, and this bill effectively repeals the mandates and taxes at the heart of the law. The House has forced the President to sign at least 10 bills that chip away at the failing law, but that is not enough. Reconciliation is the best chance to continue the fight until the law is ultimately repealed and replaced with reforms that lower costs and put patients back in charge of their health care decisions. 
  3. Defunds Planned Parenthood– This important bill also shifts taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood and instead directs those resources to respected health providers who do not take taxpayer money while providing abortions. 

Read the text of the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act by clicking here.