The House has to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill to send it to Biden for his signature. Democrats' separate plan to expand the social safety net and promote clean energy will require more steps. The House also needs to pass a budget resolution. Then congressional committees will take weeks to write a bill that both chambers of Congress can pass using the reconciliation process, which would require votes only from the 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus.
With legislation of this magnitude, the process will likely take months — and could get derailed several times along the way. To start, Pelosi has said she will not take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill or the final Democratic spending package until the Senate passes both of them.
A spokesman for the speaker said Wednesday that her strategy has not changed after the Senate approved the infrastructure plan and the budget resolution. Pelosi has faced pressure from some Democrats, including those in the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, to vote separately to pass the infrastructure plan. She has tied the two packages together to keep her whole caucus on board, as centrists grow wary of additional spending and progressives say the bipartisan plan is inadequate.
Barring a change in strategy, the House may not vote on final passage of either bill until well into the fall. Federal agency funding, called discretionary spending—the area Congress sets annually. Discretionary spending typically accounts for around a third of all funding.
Funding for Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, and other spending required by law. This is called mandatory spending and typically uses over half of all funding. For agencies and their programs to be funded, Congressional authorization committees must pass, and the president must sign, authorization bills giving agencies the legal authority to fund and operate their programs.
Normally, without authorization, an agency or program cannot receive annual appropriated funding. Authorization is not tied to the same schedule as the budget appropriations process; programs can be authorized at any time of year on an annual, multi-year, or permanent basis.
As with most things Congress does , its two chambers—the Senate and the House of Representatives—each draft their own budget resolution. The two plans are merged , and each chamber votes on the identical resolution. The appropriations committee for each chamber divides the amount allotted for federal agency funding between 12 subcommittees. Each subcommittee is in charge of funding for different functions of government, such as defense spending, energy and water, and interior and environment, and for the agencies involved.
The subcommittees conduct hearings with agency leaders about their budget requests and draft appropriations bills setting the funding for each. The full House and Senate vote on their bills, merge both versions of each one, and vote on the identical version of every bill.
Each one, if passed, goes to the president for signature. If Congress passes, and the president signs, all 12 bills by September 30—the last day of the current fiscal year—the country has a new budget in time for the start of the next fiscal year. In the event of a shutdown, the government stops issuing passports, closes national parks and monuments, halts NASA operations, and puts many other functions on hold.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the lower chamber will not consider the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passes the larger package, a process that could take several months. Pelosi added Tuesday that she was glad that the bipartisan bill passed the Senate, but noted the infrastructure bill is "not the totality of the vision of Joe Biden and the congressional Democrats.
The budget resolution provides instructions to committees to draft legislation that can pass using a process known as reconciliation, which allows Democrats to pass the package with a simple majority. No Republicans are expected to support the budget reconciliation package. GOP senators have balked at the scope of the package and the potential economic ramifications from trillions of dollars in new spending.
Just liberals doing liberal things using Senate procedure. Make no mistake.
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