The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to mark up its portion of a budget reconciliation package next week on Tuesday, May 13 at 2 p.m. The markup is expected to go much of the night and will likely be focused on cuts to Medicaid. The committee is tasked with finding $880 billion in deficit reductions, and much of that deficit reduction is expected to come from cuts to Medicaid.

As a reminder, budget reconciliation is a unique legislative process used to implement policy changes that have a budgetary impact, and will most be felt by the public health system through cuts to mandatory funding programs like Medicaid. (Think of mandatory programs like perennial plants—they just keep going year after year unless something changes, like a law–like a budget reconciliation bill– makes changes to the program.)

Budget reconciliation bills can also be passed by simple majorities in both chambers of Congress, which also make them appealing legislative tools.

Here is a deeper primer on the reconciliation process:  https://www.cbpp.org/research/introduction-to-budget-reconciliation.

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