Written by Kevin Freking
Washington (AP) The Senate lawmaker’s advice that some of the provisions in their tax and immigration plan could not be included in the legislation sparked outrage from a few Republicans on Thursday.
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On X, Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, stated that Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ought to be fired immediately. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., implied that she was political when she questioned why an unelected swamp bureaucrat nominated by Harry Reid more than ten years ago gets to choose the bill’s contents.
It’s not the first time the public has blasted the lawmaker’s typically subdued and lawyerly role.
Over the years, MacDonough has also criticized Democratic ideas, stating in 2021 that their COVID-19 relief bill could not include an increase in the minimum wage. Later that year, it was determined that Democrats’ large climate plan needed to abandon an attempt to allow millions of immigrants to stay in the country temporarily.
However, the focus on MacDonough’s decisions in recent years also reflects a larger shift in Congress, as members are increasingly attempting to cram their top policy concerns into measures that are immune to Senate filibustering. The lawmaker’s role is to analyze what qualifies and what doesn’t, as the procedure has unique regulations intended to discourage measures that have nothing to do with taxes or spending.
Her most recent rulings on Thursday dealt a blow to the Republican Party’s attempts to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid over the ensuing ten years. Although they are unlikely to do so, Senate Republicans may decide to attempt to overrule her recommendations.
Here is a closer look at the senator’s work and the reasons why lawmakers are currently concentrating so much on her suggestions.
A parliamentarian is available to assist with the rules and precedents of both the House and the Senate. They are frequently observed giving advice to the person in charge of the chamber regarding the correct course of action to take and the suitable answers to a parliamentary investigation.
Additionally, they are tasked for supplying politicians and their staff with information in a discreet and purely nonpartisan manner.
Only guidance is provided by the lawmakers and their staff. Their suggestions are not legally enforceable. The parliamentarian’s advice on whether the reconciliation measure’s elements stay focused on fiscal matters is crucial in the context of the large tax and spending bill currently before both chambers.
MacDonough, who majored in English literature, is just the sixth person to serve in the Senate since its founding in 1935 and the first woman to hold the office.
Before departing to pursue a legal education at Vermont Law School, she started her Senate career in its library. Before rejoining the Senate in 1999 as an assistant in the parliamentarian’s office, she had a brief stint as a trial lawyer in the Justice Department. In 2012, Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada who was then the Senate majority leader, selected her as a parliamentarian. When Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took over as majority leader in 2015, he kept her on board.
She supported then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., during Trump’s second trial the following year and assisted Chief Justice John Roberts in presiding during his 2020 Senate impeachment trial. Both times, Trump was found not guilty.
MacDonough and other staff members saved those ballots and hurried the mahogany boxes holding them to safety when Trump supporters battled past police and into the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. A crime scene was established after MacDonough’s office, located on the first floor of the Capitol, was looted.
Indeed. The presiding officer in charge of Senate proceedings takes decisions regarding the bill’s provisions, but the parliamentarian makes the recommendation. A vote would be held in the event of a disagreement.
Republicans are unlikely to want to take that approach, according to Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the think tank Bipartisan Policy Center. That’s exactly what a few Republican senators stated on Thursday.
Even though I’m positive she’s wrong, it’s the institutional integrity,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
According to Thorning, MacDonough is seen as an honest mediator by both party lawmakers.
According to Thorning, the Senate also depends on her. Those choices cut your way sometimes and don’t cut your way other times. Members, in my opinion, also understand that the rules become less important if you begin to perceive the lawmakers’ recommendations as something that can be readily disregarded.
The lawmaker has been replaced by the majority leaders of both parties. Depending on whatever party held the majority, Alan Frumin and Robert Dove took turns holding the post for over thirty years.
However, Thorning noted that the two lawmakers’ interpretations of Senate precedents and procedures were not very different.
Frumin was replaced as parliamentarian by MacDonough. The few calls on Thursday for her dismissal, he said, tell you everything you need to know about the current lawmaker.
According to Thorning, senators are aware that this is not a political ploy.
