Reconciliation is a legislative process of the United States Senate intended to allow consideration of a budget bill with debate limited to twenty hours under Senate rules. Reconciliation also exists in the United States House of Representatives, but because the House regularly passes rules that constrain debate and amendment, the process has had a less significant impact on that body.

A reconciliation instruction is a provision in a budget resolution directing one or more committees to submit legislation changing existing law in order to bring spending, revenues, or the debt-limit into conformity with the budget resolution. The instructions specify the committees to which they apply, indicate the appropriate dollar changes to be achieved, and usually provide a deadline by which the legislation is to be reported or submitted.

A reconciliation bill is a bill containing changes in law recommended pursuant to reconciliation instructions in a budget resolution. If the instructions pertain to only one committee in a chamber, that committee reports the reconciliation bill. If the instructions pertain to more than one committee, the House Budget Committee reports an omnibus reconciliation bill, but it may not make substantive changes in the recommendations of the other committees.

The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

Ellen Margrethe Løj (born 17 October 1948 in Gedesby, Denmark) was the Ambassador to the United Nations for Denmark from 2001 until 2007. She also served as Denmark's ambassador to the Czech Republic before she was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as Special Representative for Liberia in October 2007.

Løj has a master's degree in economics from Copenhagen University.

Løj began her diplomatic career in the Danish Foreign Ministry in 1973. From 1977 to 1980 she served as First Secretary of the Danish Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, U.S.. From 1982 to 1985 she served as Counsellor within the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. From 1986 to 1989 she was Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1989, Løj was appointed Ambassador to Israel, and served in that position until 1992 when she returned to the Foreign Ministry to serve as an Under Secretary and then State Secretary of the South Group. In 2001, she was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations.

Charles David “Chuck” Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American journalist, Chief White House Correspondent and political director for NBC News, and contributing editor to Meet the Press. He is an occasional contributor to other news outlets, including The Atlantic.

Before coming to the world of political reporting and analysis, Todd earned practical political experience on initiative campaigns in Florida and various national campaigns based in Washington, D.C. While in college, Todd worked for the 1992 presidential campaign of Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and later started part time at The Hotline.

From 1992 until March 12, 2007, Todd worked for National Journal's The Hotline, where he was editor-in-chief for six years. As part of his position, Todd also co-hosted, with John Mercurio, the webcast series Hotline TV, consisting of a daily show lasting between three and seven minutes and a weekly show ranging between 20 and 30 minutes. He became a frequent guest on political discussion shows, such as Hardball with Chris Matthews and Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff.