Conservative lawmakers were infuriated on Thursday morning after the Senate’s de facto ‘scorekeeper’ for President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ ruled that key parts of the GOP agenda bill must be stripped out.
‘The Senate Parliamentarian is not elected. She is not accountable to the American people. Yet she holds veto power over legislation supported by millions of voters,’ Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote on X. ‘It is time for our elected leaders to take back control.’
He called on Vice President JD Vance to ‘overrule the Parliamentarian and let the will of the people, not some staffer hiding behind Senate procedure, determine the future of this country.’
The Constitution names the vice president as president of the Senate as well, though it is a largely ceremonial role save for when they are needed to cast a tie-breaking vote in the chamber.
The Senate parliamentarian is typically appointed by the Senate majority leader and serves at their pleasure, with no term limit.
Their role is to make apolitical judgments about Senate rules and procedure. In the budget reconciliation process, which Republicans are working through now, the parliamentarian’s job is to rule on whether aspects of the bill fall within the necessary guidelines to qualify for reconciliation’s simple majority passage threshold.
However, with several rulings that found key portions of Trump’s agenda do not fall into reconciliation’s budgetary guidelines, Republicans on the other side of Capitol Hill – in the House of Representatives – are urging the Senate to break norms and disregard several of the parliamentarian’s decisions.
‘They ought to heed the advice of the president – don’t change the bill,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., even called for the parliamentarian to be fired.
‘The Senate Parliamentarian also ruled that ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are eligible for federal student loans. Does she not realize that our student loan crisis is already out of control??? ZERO taxpayer dollars should go towards student loans for ILLEGALS,’ he wrote on X.
‘THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP.’
And Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital, ‘The House Freedom Caucus fought tooth and nail for Medicaid reforms that would save taxpayers billions and protect the program for those who truly need it. But now, the unelected parliamentarian has struck down key provisions of [the bill.]’
‘The Senate must act quickly to correct this failure,’ Burlison said.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., wrote on X on Wednesday evening, ‘Respecting the rules matters, but so does respecting the voters. They didn’t give an unelected staffer the power to decide what is in the budget—that’s the job of Congress.’
‘It doesn’t have to be this way. The Republicans senators are not required to adhere to anything she says,’ Van Drew said.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said on the platform, ‘The rogue Senate Parliamentarian should be overruled, just like activist judges.’
Despite calls from irate House Republicans and some senators, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has stood firm in his position that he would not seek to overrule the parliamentarian.
‘That would not be a good outcome for getting a bill done,’ he told reporters.
When asked about the parliamentarian’s ruling on the provider taxes, Thune said that there were things that Republicans can do to get ‘to that same outcome.’
‘I mean, we may not have everything that we want in terms of provider tax reforms, but if we can get most of the reforms there, get the savings that come with it,’ he said. ‘This is all about saving taxpayers money and reforming these programs in a way that makes them not only more fiscally sustainable long-term, but strengthening and getting rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the programs.’
Senate Democrats vowed to inflict as much pain as possible through the process known as the ‘Byrd Bath,’ which tests if each provision, line-by-line, is compliant with the Byrd Rule that governs the budget reconciliation process.
So far, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled several key provisions, including oil and gas leasing, public land sales, changes to the cost-sharing formula for food benefits, among others, as being out of compliance with the Byrd Rule.
However, it was a slew of rulings unveiled Thursday morning the gutted numerous changes Senate Republicans made to the widely-used Medicaid program that triggered conservatives.
Among the axed provisions was the Senate GOP’s harsher crackdown on the Medicaid provider rate, or the amount that state Medicaid programs pay to providers on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries, which proved even a divisive policy among some in the conference.
Other provisions that were nixed included denying states Medicaid funding for having illegal immigrants on the benefit rolls, preventing illegal immigrants from participating in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and preventing Medicaid and CHIP funding from going toward gender-affirming care.
Republicans viewed those as key cost-saving changes, and their removal has likely set back their plan to put the mammoth bill on Trump’s desk by July 4.
