"Put simply, reconciliation is a special procedure that would allow Senate Democrats to pass a bill with only 51 votes. Usually, the party in power in the Senate needs 60 votes to override minority opposition. But reconciliation sets up an alternative, "fast-track" route that prohibits filibustering, so that a simple majority of 51, not 60, is the magic number.

Both parties have used reconciliation before: the Democrats in 1993 to pass President Clinton's first budget, the Republicans in 2001 and again in 2003 to pass President Bush's tax cuts.

But trying to use reconciliation to pass a massive healthcare bill could prove problematic. Reconciliation evolved in the early 1980s in the Senate as a tool to cut the federal deficit by making spending bills easier to pass. Accordingly, Senate rules say reconciliation can be used only for bills that affect spending, revenues, and taxes.

Does the healthcare bill fit that definition? Well, parts clearly do, experts say. But other provisions could be challenged by Republicans, potentially creating a scenario in which Democrats pass a scaled-back bill that contains only portions of their original proposal."

at http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2009/09/14/democrats-could-turn-to-reconciliation-to-pass-healthcare

Sam

The House and the Senate each get a version of a bill. Let's say the bill is called the Super Fun for Kids Act of 2012.

The House and the Senate then get to work on modifying the bill. Senator X from Wyoming puts in a provision for a grant to study the migration patterns of sunflowers, and Senator Q from Rhode Island puts in a provision prohibiting spending federal money on tanning beds. Representative D from Georgia renames a post office after Lieutenant Buford B. Buford, and Representative K from New Mexico slips in a grant for studying cacti.


At some point, the House will pass a version of the bill that includes the Buford B. Buford post office and grant money to study which cactus juice makes the best tequila, and the Senate will pass a version of the bill that includes a sizeable grant for Wyoming State University and a 5-year jail sentence for purchasing tanning beds on the government dime.



Now, the two bills are not identical... the Senate bill lacks Buford and cacti, and the House bill lacks sunflowers and tanning beds.

So a group from the House and a group from the Senate will meet, reconcile their differences between the two versions, and in the end bring a compromise bill (The Most Excellent Super Fun Bill for Kids and Young Adults Act of 2012, or MESFuBKYA) back to their respective chambers. Maybe the bill contains sunflower money and Buford B. Buford, and maybe they decided to add in a provision mandating that clown shoes be made of fire-resistant materials.

So now the Senate looks at the bill and has an up-or-down vote on MESFuBKYA with no changes allowed. The House also looks at the bill and has an up-or-down vote on MESFuBKYA with no changes allowed.

If both pass, the president signs it, and MESFuBKYA becomes law, including the sunflower money, Buford B. Buford's post office, and making clown shoes fireproof.


Now, I don't think that a reconciled bill can be filibustered, I guess the theory being that since a vote was already allowed on it once you don't need to go through it again.

Reconciliation, while complex, comes down to bringing two bills, one from house, one from senate and agreeing on a bill that both can bring back to house and senate and pass. No changes in this are allowed.

Bill.

But it's often used in a sneaky way.

The Democrats used it in the Lame Duck to pass a ton of stuff already passed by the House under Pelosi. They linked it to the budget to bypass the filibuster.

Reconciliation is a sneaky way to change laws by linking it to the budget.