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- Senate Directs Committees to Draft Budget Reconciliation Legislation to Address Health Care Priorities
Congress will work to enact several health care provisions through its budget reconciliation process after an affirmative vote in the Senate on August 11.
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a reconciliation resolution, by a 50-49 party-line vote, to instruct Senate and House committees to draft a budget bill amounting to $3.5 trillion. The vote took place after the Senate approved a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. The budget reconciliation process permits Congress to expedite legislation with a simple majority and without being subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Instructions include legislative requests for several health care provisions that the CAP will track in the weeks and months ahead. They include measures to increase health care coverage and benefits, address health care equity and disparities, mitigate health care professional shortages through investments in graduate medical education, and pandemic preparedness.
Following the congressional summer recess, both chambers of Congress will draft reconciliation bills for final consideration and passage. Congress is also expected to debate legislation to keep the government open and increase the national debt limit ceiling in September.
The CAP will provide additional updates on these legislative activities in future editions of Advocacy Update.