§015r.01 (CB) Reconciliation Instruction – Budget Resolutions

Cyclopedia of Congressional Budget Law

Reconciliation Instruction from Budget Resolutions

Summary

A reconciliation instruction is a directive placed in a concurrent resolution on the budget for a fiscal year pursuant to sec. 310 (CBA), which takes the form of resolution text. The instruction will include the Committees being directed, the kind of change to make, and the date by which such changes are to be made. If two or more committees are “reconciled”, which means given instructions, then they “submit” (not “report”) their recommendations to the Budget Committees of the respective Houses. Those committees combine the legislative submissions, but may not make “substantive” changes, and report the resulting bill. If only one committee receives an instruction, then the Budget Committees are skipped and the bill goes straight to the floor of the House or Senate.