What You Need to Know

On the day that President Biden took workplace, he promised to ship a invoice to Congress to create a path to authorized standing for undocumented immigrants. Sadly, that invoice, the U.S. Citizenship Act, has made little progress because it was launched in February. Even the passage within the Home of Representatives of the Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in March has not produced a legislative answer.

Fortunately, there stays one attainable method for President Biden to ship on one among his largest guarantees: the funds reconciliation course of.

Not like the traditional legislative course of, payments which undergo the reconciliation course of aren’t topic to the Senate filibuster. That implies that a funds reconciliation invoice may cross with a naked majority of fifty votes, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker.

Consequently, Democrats may create a path to citizenship with none Republican assist in the event that they unify all 50 Senators of their caucus and a majority within the Home to cross a funds reconciliation invoice. Given the chance, President Biden himself has stated that he helps this course of for immigration. As well as, a key swing-state senator, Joe Manchin (D-WV) additionally has signaled assist for together with immigration within the reconciliation invoice.

Nevertheless, the power of Senate Democrats to create a path to citizenship via reconciliation isn’t a assure. To ensure that a provision of regulation to cross via funds reconciliation, it should fulfill the “Byrd Rule.” This rule says that reconciliation can’t be used for provisions that are “extraneous” to federal funds. In different phrases, provisions that are unrelated to the fundamental objective of elevating and spending cash can’t be handed via reconciliation.

Fortunately, there’s historic precedent for utilizing reconciliation to extend immigration. In 2005, Senate Republicans handed a invoice via the reconciliation course of that will have enormously elevated employment-based immigration. They did so by imposing a $500 price on immigrant visa petitions in these classes.

The imposition of latest charges within the 2005 reconciliation invoice allowed senators to broaden immigration via a method that handed the Byrd Rule. It additionally presents a blueprint for the way Democrats may create a path to citizenship within the 2021 funds reconciliation invoice via some type of a revenue-raising price on purposes to acquire lawful standing.

Usually, the choice about whether or not a invoice can cross the Byrd Rule comes all the way down to the Senate Parliamentarian, a lawyer employed by the Senate to rule on issues of Senate process. Nevertheless, even when the Parliamentarian determined that an immigration provision couldn’t be handed via a funds reconciliation invoice, that call theoretically could possibly be overturned by Vice President Harris.

Given the problem of making a path to citizenship via regular Senate procedures, funds reconciliation often is the solely real looking choice remaining for Democrats. With DACA in limbo following a courtroom resolution putting down this system simply weeks in the past, the necessity for a everlasting path to standing has by no means been larger. Now could be the time.

FILED UNDER: Biden-Harris Administration, Home, Senate