This piece originally appeared at Legislative Procedure.
Last week, the Senate advanced its compromise agreement with the House on the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 14) on a 51 to 48 vote. In a departure from past practice, the aggregate spending, revenue, and deficit/debt numbers in H. Con. Res. 14 are derived from a current policy baseline instead of a current law baseline. A current policy baseline assumes that the budgetary effects of policies presently in effect but otherwise scheduled to expire continue. In contrast, a current law baseline assumes that the budgetary effects of expiring policies do not continue. Republicans used a current policy baseline because it makes it easier for Congress to permanently extend expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act via the reconciliation process.
Senate Democrats oppose extending the expiring tax cuts and argued that using a current policy baseline to score the budget resolution was a Senate rule violation in a bid to frustrate the Republican plan. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated that Republicans were "getting ready to decide for themselves which rules of the Senate to follow, and which rules to ignore." And Democrats called on the chamber’s parliamentarian to rule against Republicans’ effort to use a current policy baseline in the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution before the debate began.
Yet the parliamentarian did not rule out using a current policy baseline and Democrats could not stop Republicans from taking the first step towards extending the expiring tax cuts. This is because the parliamentarian doesn’t have the power to “rule” on anything, and the Senate’s budget rules stipulate explicitly that the House and Senate budget committees score legislative proposals (e.g., budget resolutions).
