so here it is. it s a measure to pass legislation while avoiding a filibuster threat. what they need is a simple majority, 51 votes in the senate. it was used back in 1989 to overhaul physician payments. in 1996, it was used for the welfare overhaul and used in 2001 and 2003. the pages of history being reworked in texas. no matter where you live, what is happening in texas could affect you. at a texas state board of education. they re affecting their textbooks there, and it could affect textbooks wherever you are. give you a little background here. this is 24 hours ago, not long ago the state board of education took a preliminary vote to adopt new standards for social studies, history, and economic classes. texas buys a whole lot of textbooks, it s a pretty big state. publishers tend to adhere to the standards in texas. what goes in the textbooks in
dana bash for you. thank you. reporter: thank you. here s the explainer on the process we ve been talking about, known as reconciliation, the democrats plan to use pass health care reform. reconciliation is a measure to pass contentious budget legislation while avoiding a filibuster threat. it allows for a 51-vote majority in the senate. reconciliation was used in 1989 to pass a medicare overhaul for physician payments. in 1996 it was used to pass the welfare overhaul, and it was used to enact the bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. other big stories we are following for you in the newsroom. talking strategy at the white house. the focus, afghanistan and pakistan. president obama gathered his national security team together last hour for an update on the fight against the taliban. earlier this week, britain s foreign secretary said the u.s. was on the right track. i think that there s a very strong feeling now that following the implementation of general mcchrystal s new
a lot of people saying, hey, wait a minute, hold on with this reconciliation. but we took a look back in the history. the precedent started, back in 1980, they have used it, republicans, 17 times. democrats, you can see, five times. i want to give you a couple different examples of when it was used. some big-ticket controversial legislation, we re not just talking health care in 2010. this i found interesting, i had no idea, you know the idea c.o.b.r.a., allowing laid-off workers to purchase health care coverage that they get from their employers, the r in c.o.b.r.a. stands for reconciliation. the medicare overhaul in 1989, the welfare overhaul in 96, both, both bush tax cuts there, and the deficit-reduction bill in 2005. so, now that you kind of get the lay of the land here when it comes to reconciliation. i want to bring in cnn political editor mark preston who has been really following this. some are saying, mark,
parliamentary procedure known as reconciliati reconciliation. republicans are crying foul. if you use reconciliation on this health care bill which you see today what you re going to have a thumbing of the nose at the american people. they don t agree with it. we need to change it. we re willing to work to get it changed to where we don t have a massive increase in the government influence on health care. time to get used to this word reconciliation. you re going to be hearing it a lot as health care reform heads toward a shoudown. so we re going to do a little reconciliation one on one for you. reconciliation is a measure to pass contentious budget legislation while avoiding a filibuster threat. got it? it was used in 1989 to pass a medicare overhaul for physician payments. in 1996 it was used to pass the welfare overhaul. it was used to enact the bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. so since we got that established, let s get an update on where things stand with health care reform rig
harry reid the senate lead ser talking about the majority lead ser talking about using reconciliation to get the bill passed. to get through the senate. let s explain what that means. now that the democrats don t have a fill butter proof majority in the senate they might turn to something called reconciliation where the senate takes the bill and then tinkers with it a little bit and then decides to pass it using reconciliation. reconciliation only needs 51 votes to pass. you can t filibuster which means one person can t hold it up by continuing to say no to something. it was originally designed to deal with budget matters to reconcile legislation with budget rules that controlled spending. let me tell what you reconciliation has been used for in the past. back in 1989, it was used for the medicare overhaul for physician payments. in 1996, it was used for a welfare overhaul and in 2001 and 2003, it was used for the bush