Reconciliation Pursuant to S. Con. Res. 5, the Concurrent Resolution on the... (EventID=111179)

Connect with the House Financial Services Committee
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On Wednesday, February 10, 2021, from 12:00 p.m. (ET) full Committee Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member McHenry will host a markup for reconciliation pursuant to S. Con. Res. 5, the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2021.

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Overview
As of February 4, 2021, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused more than 104 million infections and over 2.2 million deaths worldwide, with more than 26 million infections and 443,000 deaths in the United States alone. 1 The daily mortality rates for COVID-19 since mid November 2020 make it the leading cause of death in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected low-income communities and people of color. For example, in substantially non-white counties that have a high rate of poverty, residents have a nine times greater chance of death from COVID-19 than in mostly white, similar-income counties. COVID-19 has also taken a substantial economic toll. The national unemployment rate peaked at 14.7% in April 2020 when 20.5 million people in the United States lost their jobs. The unemployment rate in the United States remains at 6.7%, significantly higher than the 3.5% pre-pandemic unemployment rate. Real gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2020 is 3.4% below the level of real GDP for the fourth quarter of 2019, the most recent quarter before the onset of the pandemic.

On January 14, 2021, then-President-elect Joseph R. Biden announced the American Rescue Plan (the Plan), a $1.9 trillion legislative proposal to address the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Plan would provide relief to individuals, communities, and businesses, stimulate the economy, invest in health measures such as vaccination infrastructure, and provide $9 billion to invest in cybersecurity infrastructure. According to one estimate, in contrast to no additional fiscal support, the Plan would increase real GDP by roughly 4 percent at the end of 2021 and 2 percent at the end of 2022.

The Budget Resolution provides instructions to the following 12 House Committees: Agriculture, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, Natural Resources, Oversight and Reform, Science, Space and Technology, Small Business, Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs, and Ways and Means. Each House Committee has been instructed in accordance with their jurisdiction to report legislation totaling in aggregate $1.9 trillion consistent with specified budgetary target amounts no later than February 16, 2020. In addition to the Committee on Financial Services, reconciliation instructions were provided to the following Committees to submit changes in laws within their respective jurisdictions to increase the deficit by not more than the following amounts for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030:

• Committee on Agriculture - $16,112,000,000
• Committee on Education and Labor - $357,076,000,000
• Committee on Energy and Commerce - $188,498,000,000
• Committee on Foreign Affairs - $10,000,000,000
• Committee on Natural Resources - $1,005,000,000
• Committee on Oversight and Reform - $350,690,000,000
• Committee on Science, Space and Technology - $750,000,000
• Committee on Small Business - $50,000,000,000
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure - $95,620,000,000
• Committee on Veterans’ Affairs - $17,000,000,000
• Committee on Ways and Means - $940,718,000,000

Upon the conclusion of the markup, each Committee will report its recommendations to the House Committee on Budget. The Budget Committee will then combine all committees’ recommendations and report them to the floor as a single budget reconciliation measure.

Financial Services Committee Instructions.

The Budget Resolution instructs the Committee on Financial Services to “submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $75,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.” The Committee Print to be considered at the markup would increase the deficit in the following ways:

$10 billion for Defense Production Act spending. The United States continues to face shortages of key medical supplies and equipment to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic, demonstrating key gaps in the capacity of domestic manufacturing to fulfill U.S. public health needs. N95 masks are being reused over the objections of essential health workers and critical gaps and vulnerabilities in medical and drug supply chains are complicating efforts to rapidly deploy vaccines, such as a lack of syringes with low dead space needles.