Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is leading a series of training sessions for Republican congressional staffers to prepare them for using budget reconciliation as a tool to pass President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda in 2025.
Reconciliation is a legislative process that allows certain budget-related policies to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, enabling the majority party to pass measures with a simple majority.
The training, which kicked off on November 18, is being hosted in collaboration with the Economic Policy Innovation Center EPIC.
Key figures from EPIC, including Director of Budget Policy Matthew Dickerson and Executive Vice President Brittany Madni, have been providing guidance on how to navigate the often-complex reconciliation process.
Under reconciliation, policies must be related to budgetary matters, such as spending or the debt limit. While the GOP has previously criticized Democrats for stretching the interpretation of reconciliation to pass broad policies, Republicans are now considering how they can use this process to advance conservative priorities, especially an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
With a 53-seat majority in the Senate in 2025, Republicans will be in a strong position to pass elements of Trump’s tax and economic policies through reconciliation.
However, they may face challenges in including other policy areas that don’t meet reconciliation’s budget-related criteria. In such cases, they may need to secure Democratic support to overcome the filibuster and pass legislation under the usual legislative process.
The first training session was attended by over 100 staffers, representing more than 70 offices on Capitol Hill, and additional sessions are planned.