Budget Reconciliation Bills Since 1974 Budget Act

The reconciliation bill titles below refer to the calendar year of enactment, not the fiscal year of the budget resolution that launched the reconciliation process. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was enacted pursuant to budget reconciliation instructions in the FY 2018 budget resolution. This occurs because budget resolutions focus on the upcoming fiscal year (the “budget year”), while bill titles refer to the calendar year of enactment. Occasionally, the reconciliation process is prolonged, and the years coincide, as with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which was launched in calendar 2021 with the FY 2022 budget resolution, but was not completed until August 16, 2022.

Note on the debt limit and reconciliation: as reflected in the table, reconciliation bills have been used 4 times to raise the statutory ceiling on the public debt: 1986, 1990, 1993, and 1997.