Obama signs Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, using reconciliation to amend the ACA

President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 on March 30, 2010, using budget reconciliation to amend the Affordable Care Act, which had passed the Senate two days earlier. The reconciliation bill passed the Senate on March 25, 2010 and the House on March 21. Democrats used reconciliation because Republican Scott Brown's January 2010 special election victory had cost them their 60-seat filibuster-proof majority. The bill modified ACA subsidy levels, closed the Medicare Part D coverage gap, and eliminated the Nebraska Medicaid deal known as the "Cornhusker Kickback."