With all eyes on the HC summit,  behind the scenes, Congressional Democratic Leaders are putting the finishing touches on how to pass the Health Care bill with minimal effort by using the reconciliation process. The benefits of this process are simple, it requires the least amount of work from the Senate, where the 60 vote Majority was lost with the election of Sen. Scott Brown. The Senate must pass 1 reconciliation bill, however it is governed under a short 20 hour time limit and only requires a Majority vote to pass. The optics of the vote-a-rama process which can take place under reconciliation makes the Senate look reckless and chaotic. However, in the end, the passage of the bill cannot be stopped if the Senate Majority Leader can hold a bear minimum of 50 of his members to vote for final passage. This process takes place in the following way:

--Senate Finance reports a reconciliation bill, complying with the Budget resol. instructions to save $1B over 5 yrs. This takes only a majority vote of the 23 members to do so. (13/10 ratio) This text will presumably be the negotiated House/Senate/WH lang. needed to clean up and fix the Senate Christmas Eve HC bill so that it can be passed in the House

--Since reconciliation is privileged, motions to proceed, etc...are not in order. Debate is limited to 20 hours total, controlled by the Leaders. This 20 hour time limit must look pretty good to the Majority Leader given the strenuous back-to-back late night sessions that endured to pass the Christmas Eve bill in the Senate last December

--During the 20 hours, pts of order can be raised against provisions that only make policy and don't have any budget effect. The Chair (VP Biden could be in the Chair) makes these rulings. If a Senator wants to waive the budget or challenge or over turn the Chair, this takes 60 Senators to vote to do so. Remember, most of the policy language needed for government take over of HC is already included in the Senate Christmas eve bill

--After the 20 hours has been used, Senators can still offer amdts and get immediate votes. This process has been dubbed vote-a-rama. In the past, vote-a-ramas have delayed the passage vote for days. However, at the end of this grueling process of back-to-back votes, final passage ultimately occurs

--Passage requires only a majority vote. In this present Senate, the Majority Leader could lose up to 9 of his members and still pass the bill with a 50/50 vote, having VP Biden vote to break the tie

NOTE: During the 23 times in the history of the Senate where they have used the reconciliation process, the average "yes" vote to pass these 23 bills is 67.25. It would be safe to say that Majority Leaders of the past used the reconciliation process for the nice/neat 20 hour time restraint it provides and not the requirement that it only takes a simple majority vote to pass.

Watch this video for actual Senate footage of a vote-a-rama under reconciliation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA-KKJxXbBQ

--Once the Senate passes this fix or clean up bill, the House must then follow suit. This can easily be done if the pre-negotiated language passes the Senate intact

--Following a minimum of 217 House members voting to pass the Senate reconciliation bill, (deaths and resignations reduce this majority number)  the House would then pass the Senate Christmas Eve bill, since it is now fixed and cleaned up by the changes made to it in the reconciliation bill

--The Speaker sends the Christmas eve HC bill to the POTUS for his signature to be followed immediately by the signing of the reconciliation bill which made major changes to the Christmas eve bill

Elizabeth Letchworth is the Owner-Founder of GradeGov.com, 4 times elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority/Minority, U. S. Senate-retired, presently senior legislative advisor @ Covington & Burling, LLC