As we wrote earlier this week, President Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and the majority of the Democrats wanted to incorporate a $15 per hour national minimum wage into the proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill (the "COVID-19 Relief Bill"). To accomplish this, the Democrats proposed a procedural shortcut known as budget reconciliation. The strategy failed.

Budget reconciliation allows for a bill to pass through the Senate with a simple majority vote and restricts opponents' use of a filibuster to hold the bill up. However, only bills impacting spending, taxes or debt are eligible for the reconciliation process. Any bill seeking passage through the budget reconciliation process must first be deemed eligible by the Senate parliamentarian.