On Thursday evening, the Senate parliamentarian targeted a slew of provisions from President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, including measures to create private school vouchers and reduce gun control.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough responded to several challenges Senate Democrats made to provisions in the bill, arguing that the measures were unrelated to the budget reconciliation process that Trump is using to pass his tax legislation. She has already targeted a host of other provisions for removal.
Recommended Stories
- Murphy says Gabbard was 'banned' from Iran briefing as White House cites scheduling
- Iran briefing reveals GOP confidence and Democratic skepticism over nuclear setback
- Trump tax bill vote risks sliding into weekend as Thune battles Senate holdouts
One of the items singled out by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough is a requirement that would have required lower-income workers to get certified by the IRS to prove their child is eligible to claim certain tax credits. That represented a change from previous policies, which allowed eligible people to file their taxes and claim the Earned Income Tax Credit without providing proof of eligibility.
Other provisions struck down, according to the Senate Budget Committee, include the deregulation of gun silencers and easily concealable guns under the National Firearms Act, as well as a section in the big, beautiful bill expanding private school vouchers.
Republicans also sought to exempt a small number of religious schools from the endowments tax, a relatively new tax designed to apply to wealthy private colleges and universities such as Harvard with large endowments that was spearheaded under Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, MacDonough targeted the new exemption for religious schools, which would have allowed institutions such as Hillsdale, a small school in Michigan, to avoid paying an income tax on their college endowment.
MacDonough’s recommendations for cuts are warranted due to a special budget reconciliation legislative process Trump is using to fast-track his sweeping tax cuts bill, which contains a host of his priorities, through the Senate. The process allows for budget-related bills to pass with a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes needed to avoid filibusters, making it easier to push items through Congress. By using the process, Trump hopes the Senate can pass his “big, beautiful” bill by July 4.
However, another legislative tactic known as the Byrd Rule kicks in when the reconciliation process is used. Senate parliamentarians, as MacDonough has done this week with Trump’s tax cuts legislation, exercise the Byrd Rule to restrict what is included in reconciliation bills, targeting provisions considered extraneous, or unrelated to the budget.
Many of the stricken provisions can be brought into compliance with minor technical changes, according to GOP lawmakers.
BYRD DROPPINGS: TRUMP TAX BILL PROVISIONS RULED OUT BY SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN
The Senate budget committee’s leading Democrat celebrated McDonough’s latest cuts announced on Friday.
“We have been successful in removing parts of this bill that hurt families and workers, but the process is not over, and Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules,” said ranking member Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “Republicans are actively attempting to rewrite major sections of this bill to advance their families lose, and billionaires win agenda, but Democrats are scrutinizing all changes to ensure the rules of reconciliation are enforced. We cannot let Republicans succeed in betraying middle-class families across this country.”