Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

John J. Pitney

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

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© 2026 Scott R Sloop

Abstract

This paper examines how budget reconciliation in the United States Congress has evolved since its origins in 1974 and what drives modern reconciliation. Congress never used reconciliation as the Budget Act’s authors intended. During the early 1980s, reconciliation underwent a phase of capacity expansion, where Congress experimented with different uses for the process. It refined and routinized reconciliation through the early 1990s. When partisanship worsened in the 1990s and 2000s, the ability of reconciliation legislation to bypass the Senate filibuster made it an invaluable tool for partisan majorities. During periods of united government, typically at the beginning of a presidency, the in-party used reconciliation to enact major parts of their agendas with no support from the out-party. Democrats during the Biden era again broadened reconciliation into a tool for multi-policy enactment, making it one of the most consequential processes in Congress. When President Trump and Republican congressional majorities won in the 2024 elections, they immediately got to work on a comprehensive reconciliation package they called the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA). Despite low public approval and a fractured Republican conference, Trump and party leaders used strategic concessions and pressure campaigns to maintain a narrow majority and pass the bill. The development of the OBBBA explains the drivers of the modern reconciliation process.

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