The Senate Budget Committee has released its fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget resolution to boost funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement agencies, specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. In a new insight, Director of Fiscal Policy Jordan Haring reviews how reconciliation works, as well as its procedural benefits and challenges.

Key points:

• The goal of the Senate’s budget is to enact the reconciliation legislation in tandem with funding legislation for the non-immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of FY 2026.
• Budget reconciliation is a powerful legislative tool that policymakers can employ to make major changes to federal revenues and direct spending under expedited procedures; in the Senate, reconciliation legislation is privileged, meaning it requires only a simple majority to be brought to the Senate floor for consideration rather than the usual filibuster-proof (60 vote) majority.
• The reconciliation process faces several limitations: Congress must first adopt a budget resolution; reconciliation can only be invoked a limited number of times under a single budget resolution; and the “Byrd Rule” further limits the scope of reconciliation legislation to purely budget-related matters, among other restrictions.

Read the analysis.