Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' heads for showdown with Senate parliamentarian

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

06/02/25 6:00 AM ET


House-passed legislation to enact President Trump’s agenda is headed for a showdown with the Senate parliamentarian as Democrats plan to challenge key elements of it, including a proposal to make Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts permanent. Senate Democrats are warning ahead of the fight that if Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) makes an end run around the parliamentarian to make Trump’s tax cuts permanent, it would seriously undermine the filibuster and open the door to Democrats rewriting Senate rules in the future.

Senate Republicans argue that it’s up to Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to set the budgetary baseline for the bill. They say it’s not up to the parliamentarian to determine whether extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts should be scored as adding to the deficit.

If Graham determines that extending Trump’s tax cuts should be judged as an extension of current policy and therefore is budget neutral, it would allow Republicans to make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, which is a top priority of Thune and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Democrats expect Senate Republicans to do just that, most likely by putting the question to a vote in the Senate, which Republicans control with 53 seats.

That’s what Thune did before the Memorial Day recess to set a new Senate precedent to allow Republicans to repeal California’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate under the Congressional Review Act. Democrats will attempt to force the parliamentarian to rule that making the Trump tax cuts permanent would add to federal deficits beyond 2034 — beyond the 10-year budget window — and therefore violate the Senate’s Byrd Rule.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5326610-democrats-challenge-trump-tax-cuts/

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Byrd Rule

(snip)

In 1985 and 1986, the Senate adopted the Byrd rule (named after its principal sponsor, Senator Robert C. Byrd) on a temporary basis as a means of curbing these practices. The Byrd rule was extended and modified several times over the years. In 1990, the Byrd rule was incorporated into the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 as Section 313 and made permanent (2 U.S.C. 644).

A Senator opposed to the inclusion of extraneous matter in reconciliation legislation may offer an amendment (or a motion to recommit the measure with instructions) that strikes such provisions from the legislation, or, under the Byrd rule, a Senator may raise a point of order against such matter. In general, a point of order authorized under the Byrd rule may be raised in order to strike extraneous matter already in the bill as reported or discharged (or in the conference report), or to prevent the incorporation of extraneous matter through the adoption of amendments or motions. A motion to waive the Byrd rule, or to sustain an appeal of the ruling of the chair on a point of order raised under the Byrd rule, requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the membership (60 Senators if no seats are vacant).

The Byrd rule provides six definitions of what constitutes extraneous matter for purposes of the rule (and several exceptions thereto), but the term is generally described as covering provisions unrelated to achieving the goals of the reconciliation instructions.

The Byrd rule has been in effect during Senate consideration of 23 reconciliation measures from late 1985 through the present.

(snip)

[Blues Heron]

1. Hopefully they tell TACO to go pound sand. The bill needs to die in the senate.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. If the GOP bypass or ignore the Senate Parliamentarian then the filibuster is effectively dead

The reconciliation process is an exception to the filibuster rule and requires the Senate Parliamentarian to pass on the items. There are a good number of items in the current bill that are not budget related such as the restriction on injunctions against trump. If the GOP Senate bypasses the parliamentarian, then the Democrats will be free to do away with the filibuster

[BumRushDaShow]

3. The House put all kinds of "policy riders" onto their bill

as they have no "filibuster" type Rule like the Senate. The forbidding of states to regulate AI for 10 years (or whatever time frame) is blatantly "extraneous" to the budget.

ALL of that stuff needs to be stripped out as it has nothing to do with the "budget" (spending/taxing/debt).

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. GOP Senators are NOT going to bypass the Senate Parliamentarian on trump's nasty big bill

The trump bill has a ton of provisions that are NOT proper under reconciliation rules. trump and others want the Senate republicans to not submit this bill to the Senate parliamentarian for review and instead pass the bill without complying with the reconciliation rules. For example the part of the trump bill that provides that the courts cannot enjoin trump if he violates the law. That provision is clearly void under the reconciliation rules.

I am happy to see that the Senate is NOT going to go around the Senate Parliamentarian because if the GOP pulls this stunt, then the Democrats would be free to also ignore the filibuster rules. Having to have the Senate Parliamentarian pass on this bill which should mean that good number of the provision in this bill will be deleted.

Link to tweet

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/02/congress/senate-parliamentarian-overrule-thune-00380848

Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled Monday that Republicans won’t move to overrule the chamber’s parliamentarian during an upcoming debate on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

“We’re not going there,” Thune said when asked by reporters about overruling Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who will play a special role in vetting the bill for compliance with the strict Senate rules allowing Republicans to bypass a Democratic filibuster.

Senate staffers met with MacDonough during last week’s recess to vet the House-passed megabill and talk through their own ideas, conversations first reported by POLITICO. Thune said that committee staffers tasked with drafting the legislation will continue conferring with her this week and next week. At the end of the process, MacDonough will make rulings on whether various policies comply with the chamber’s rules.

The question about the fate of the parliamentarian comes after Senate Republicans sidestepped her in a recent fight to nix waivers allowing California to set its own emissions standards.

At least one of Thune’s members is already publicly floating that his party should be willing to directly overrule MacDonough on the megabill. In a tweet last month, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote on X that “disagreeing with the Senate parliamentarian may be warranted if the parliamentarian gives bad advice, and it’s wrong to suggest otherwise.”

Several significant pieces of the House-approved bill are at risk of falling out of the legislation as it moves through the Senate.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. At this point

based on Thune going around the Parliamentarian by applying the CRA to the CA Emissions Waiver, then I won't trust him as far as I can throw him. He is Turtle's shadow.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. If the GOP in effect nuke the filibuster, then the Democrats will be free to do the same in the future

I do NOT trust any republican senator but at the same time, these senators are worried what the Democrats would do if they get a majority in the Senate

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Yup and we know that and they know that

But I expect because we supposedly have a "hard map" in 2026, they probably think our chances are slim to retake the Senate.

[0rganism]

9. I must assume Sen. Thune is lying

Obviously, they'll pass it one way or another. The alternative puts them at odds with the MAGA cult, so they'll happily override, undercut, or assassinate as needed to salvage their own asses and assets.

[BlueKota]

5. I'd like to be reassured but when a Repulicon

vows they won't do something they usually end up doing it anyway.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. House reconciliation bill provision that would bar states from regulating AI for ten years

This provision is clearly not permissible in reconciliation.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

There are a ton of provisions like this that need to be stripped from this bill