"The Quietly Powerful Senate Parliamentarian"

 

Elizabeth MacDonough is not a household name. A “parliamentarian” sounds like a persnickety bureaucrat rapping her gavel when speakers exceed their allotted time limit. But Elizabeth McDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, deserves recognition and respect for her work this week—work that was anything but ministerial.

MacDonough is tasked with ensuring that the reconciliation bill complies with the “Byrd Rule,” which, among other things, excludes measures in which funding is “incidental” to a policy change. She has enforced this rule justly and zealously, leaving a slew of MAGA extreme policy proposals on the cutting room floor.

As Time magazine put it, “She wasn’t elected, and she doesn’t cast votes. But over the past week, …the quietly powerful Senate parliamentarian may have had more influence over Donald Trump’s legislative agenda than anyone else in Washington.” That is because Democrats do not have the numbers, and not enough Republicans have the spines to reject radical, harebrained, and simply cruel measures.

The scope of the items she has rejected and the harm they could have caused if they stayed in the bill boggles the mind. “Gone are GOP-led efforts to curb environmental regulations, attempts to restrict federal judges' powers, plans to bulk up immigration enforcement and to cut funding from the federal agency launched to protect American consumers after the 2008 financial crisis,” USA Today reported. “MacDonough determined that each item was in violation of a critical Senate rule that prohibits extraneous measures in bills like the one Trump wants on his desk for signature by July 4.”

On Friday, she sliced out a slew of critical Medicaid and Medicare provisions that may total $200B, throwing a huge monkey wrench into MAGA Republicans’ scheme. The Senate Budget Committee reported that the parliamentarian nixed measures throwing certain categories of immigrants off Medicaid and CHIP; reducing the federal match for states that expanded Medicaid; barring gender-affirming care; limiting increases in the provider tax (which would “severely limit states’ ability to provide health care to millions of Americans who depend upon Medicaid for their care”); and removing certain immigrants from Medicare and credits/cost sharing in the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

These redactions deal a savage blow to many destructive aspects of the bill. The surgery on MAGA’s cruel handiwork throws the process, already being bogged down as more Republicans air objections, into chaos.

Other items she has tossed include:

A provision selling off millions of acres of federal lands

A provision to pass food aid costs on to states 

A proposed limitations on food aid benefits to certain citizens or lawful permanent residents

Proposed restrictions on the ability of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders

A proposal for a funding cap for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and for slashing pay of employees at the Federal Reserve

A proposal to slash $293 million from the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research

A plan to dissolve the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

An effort to repeal an EPA rule limiting air pollution emissions of passenger vehicles

An item allowing project developers to bypass judicial environmental reviews if they pay a fee

A measure deeming offshore oil and gas projects automatically compliant with the National Environmental Policy Act

A modified version of the REINS Act, which would increase congressional power to overturn major regulations

A scheme to punish so-called sanctuary cities by withholding federal grants

An increase on Federal Employees Retirement System contribution rate for new civil servants who refuse to become at-will employees

A measure seeking to extend the suspension of permanent price support authority for farmers

A requirement forcing sale of all the electric vehicles used by the Post Office

A change to annual geothermal lease sales and to geothermal royalties, June 24)

A proposal for a mining road in Alaska

Authorization for the executive branch to reorganize federal agencies

New fee for federal worker unions’ use of agency resources

Transfer of space shuttle to a nonprofit in Houston from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

And that is merely a partial list.

Several caveats are in order. First, Republicans can revise a rejected measure and resubmit it through the process. Some may pass in altered form. Second, removing these MAGA proposals, however commendable, does not remove the core of this monstrous bill: taking healthcare coverage from 16M people to give tax cuts to the super-rich. 

Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell blithely declared those who lose healthcare coverage will “get over it.” One wonders if he, a polio survivor who has had troubling episodes in public would be so nonchalant if he or a loved one lost medical coverage. Third, the partial list of rejected items demonstrates how radical and destructive the MAGA Republicans’ agenda actually is. 

Disregard for vulnerable Americans, competent judicial administration, fact-based government, consumer protection, and planetary survival is now “mainstream” in a radical party. It seems there is no one and no aspect of government that would not be made worse by this bill.

Nevertheless, one cannot help admiring the intellectual consistency, fearlessness, and respect for rules—concepts foreign to MAGA Republicans—that MacDonough has displayed. She’s demonstrating how government is supposed to work: by the book, and without regard to which party is in power.

In doing so, she exposes MAGA Republicans’ constant cowardly dodges, bad faith votes, and proclivity to violate their oaths. Enforcing the War Powers Act? Pish posh. Refusing to vote for abjectly unqualified nominees, some of whom have misrepresented facts and shown utter contempt for Senators? Nah. Not worth it. Putting a stop to Trump’s gross conflicts of interest, self-enrichment, and even receipt of a $400M Qatari jet? Can’t be bothered. Condemning the pardon of Jan. 6 felons? No chance.

In an atmosphere of lawlessness and capitulation, when it is so easy to say “yes” to Trump’s whims, here is someone to stand up and say: “Rules aren’t optional. They matter. They ensure we are a government of laws, not of petulant autocrats.”

MacDonough reminds us all that by sticking to the rules, refusing to give way to cynicism, and doing our jobs competently, we make it that much harder for the autocrats, bullies, nihilists, and callous careerists to achieve their aims. Throughout this week, she has remained a courageous defender of the rules. 

As such, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough has earned our admiration, and we honor her for her steadfast and undaunted vigilance.

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