To pass the federal budget in the U.S. Senate, the number of required votes depends on the legislative process used:
- Under the normal Senate process, passing budget-related legislation typically requires a 60-vote supermajority to overcome a filibuster.
- However, for budget reconciliation bills, which are special budget-related legislation, they can pass the Senate by a simple majority of 51 votes (or 50 votes plus the Vice President as the tie-breaker). This process bypasses the filibuster, limiting debate time to 20 hours and preventing the need for a 60-vote threshold.
- Budget reconciliation can be used for bills affecting mandatory spending, revenue, and the federal debt limit, but not discretionary spending. Only one reconciliation bill per fiscal year can generally be passed per category (spending, revenue, debt).
So it depends on whether the budget is being passed through the regular process (60 votes) or the reconciliation process (51 votes).
