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July 2nd, 2025 Len’s Letter #80 Messing with the One Big Beautiful Bill
Elizabeth MacDonough may be the toughest character in the Senate. You don’t recognize the name? Not as familiar to the public as, say, Maine Senator Susan Collins? Or New York Senator Chuck Schumer? Or South Dakota Senator John Thune?
Well. John Thune is not so familiar to the public either. He replaced Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader in the Senate. Elizabeth MacDonough is the Senate Parliamentarian. She is not familiar to the public at all.
Nobody grows up with a plan to become the Senate’s Parliamentarian. It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Somebody has to say whether an action being considered by the Senate is consistent with its rules.
Have you ever been on a committee when someone objects – insisting you have to follow Robert’s Rules of Order. You can’t do this or that unless you follow the rules. The Senate Parliamentarian’s job is to interpret the United States Senate’s rules to the Senate.
Who made Elizabeth MacDonough the Senate Parliamentarian? The Senate Majority Leader. In 2012, when the previous Parliamentarian retired, Nevada Senator Harry Reid appointed her.
When Republican Mitch McConnell became Majority Leader, why didn’t he replace her? It isn’t done. I don’t mean to say that the Parliamentarian cannot be fired. Nor do I mean to say that the Parliamentarian cannot be overruled by the Senate. It is rarely done.
The majority leader can fire the Parliamentarian. In 2001, Mississippi Senator and Majority Leader Trent Lott fired Parliamentarian Robert Dove. Lott replaced Dove with former Parliamentarian Alan Frumin. He retired when he was 65. The Presiding Office in the Senate can overrule the Parliamentarian. In 1975 Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, presiding over the Senate, overruled the Parliamentarian. The Senate, to ensure that Rockefeller’s rule not be a precedent, formally adopted the old rule at the next opportunity.
Fifty nine year old Elizabeth MacDonough went to school in Connecticut, to an independent day school, the Green Farms Academy, graduating more than a decade after the school began admitting boys. When she completed secondary school, she left for Washington DC and got her BA from the George Washington University in 1988.
Elizabeth MacDonough got a government job. She was a reference assistant in the Senate Library. After progressing to more responsible positions, she left in 1995 to get a law degree from the Vermont Law School. In 1999, she joined the staff of the Senate Parliamentarian – as an assistant and then as senior assistant. She had been in the office for thirteen years when she was appointed Parliamentarian.
Elizabeth MacDonough is busy these days. The Senate is considering the budget reconciliation bill that has already been passed in the House of Representatives. The Senate Minority Leader has raised questions for the Parliamentarian. She and her staff are considering those questions according to the Byrd Rule which requires that budget reconciliation bills (which can pass with a simple majority according to the Senate rules) have a budgetary purpose.
If Elizabeth MacDonough finds that a section of the bill about which a question has been raised does not have a budget purpose, it cannot be part of the reconciliation bill and be voted on by a majority. Otherwise, that section is subject to a filibuster and must obtain the now required supermajority of 60 votes. Getting 60 votes is a problem for Majority Leader John Thune. With a 53-47 majority, he sometimes loses one or two Republicans. Keeping a 51vote majority, including the vote of the Vice President, is not easy. Getting to 60 votes, getting all 53 Republicans and adding seven Democrats is a challenge. In some instances, she finds that a section simply violates a Senate rule and cannot be passed at all.
The House Budget Bill (The One Big Beautiful Bill as it was named by President Trump) was passed by a delicate one vote majority. Any change in that Bill by the Senate could upset that delicate majority and can make subsequent passage or the revised Bill in the House impossible.
So far, the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough and her staff, has issued many rulings that would lead to sections being stripped from a Senate Bill that could be passed by a simple majority in the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune has announced his opposition to any attempt of the Senate to overturn rulings by the Parliamentarian. John Thune has, apparently abandoned the possibility that the bill could be voted in the Senate, resolved in the House and sent to the President by July 4. He is trying, though, and has said he would keep the Senate in session until the Senate passes its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The following have been found by the Parliamentarian to not have a budgetary impact or otherwise violate Senate rules and therefore are likely to be stripped from the One Big Beautiful budget bill or be revised so they conform to the Senate rules.
Wait. I have been following news stories, adding as I went along. Then, I read the New York Times. Reporter Alicia Parlapiano did a better, clearer, simpler job than I did. She had some help from fellow reporter: Margot Sanger-Katz.
What is more, her explanation of the reasons Elizabeth MacDonough might eliminate a segment were clearer than my explanation.
Here is what she had to say:
Under the [Byrd] rule, each of the bill’s provisions:
- Must produce a non-incidental change to the federal budget.In other words, it must primarily be a change to spending or revenue. Provisions with no or minimal budgetary impact, or that are mostly there for policy reasons, are supposed to be struck, but the decision can be subjective.
- May not increase the deficit outside of the budget window.In this case, provisions can’t add to deficits past 2034.
- May not make changes to Social Security.
Alicia Parlapiano and other NY Times staff highlighted items that have been stripped which Republicans say they are rewriting so that they will pass muster. Here is the NY Times full list, clearer than mine, of what Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has stripped from the bill and what the Republicans are working on to revise so it would pass muster with the Parliamentarian.
It is probable that this version of Len’s Letter will be incomplete when it is published. It is targeted for a July 2 publication, two days before Trump’s July 4 deadline for receiving the bill. The President’s deadline is in jeopardy. Mine is not. This piece will be completed in late June and prepared for publication.
The goal of this piece is not to present news. The goal is not to describe the final bill. After the bill is passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President, there will be newspaper reports about what the bill will do to us.
The goal of this piece is to describe the impact of the Senate Parliamentarian. Republican Members of the House of Representatives are beginning to complain. Senators, on the other hand…. Others, too, perhaps, are grateful that the Parliamentarian is making tough decisions. Her reasons may not be political. But her decisions have a political impact.
Health care
Provider tax restrictions
Lower the maximum rates of taxes that states can charge health care providers for states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, and freeze current tax rates for states that have not. States often use such taxes to boost federal matching payments. This provision was expected to generate significant savings in the bill.
Republicans are working to make the provision compliant.
Gender transition care
Ban the use of Medicaid funds for gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and adults
Medicaid eligibility for immigrants
Revoke eligibility for certain noncitizens
Obamacare tax credits for immigrants
Revoke eligibility for certain noncitizens
Eliminate a Medicaid grace period for immigrants
Prevent states from enrolling people in Medicaid until their citizenship status can be confirmed
Obamacare tax credits for immigrants ineligible for Medicaid
Prevent immigrants who are poor but haven’t been in the country for five years from accessing tax credits to buy private insurance
Spread pricing
Ban a practice sometimes used by pharmacy benefit managers in pricing drugs for Medicaid
Reduce federal funding for certain states
States that use their own funds to provide health insurance outside of Medicaid to undocumented immigrants would pay a higher share for Medicaid expansion beneficiaries
Obamacare cost-sharing reductions
Fund payments to insurance companies to lower Obamacare deductibles and co-payments for low-income purchasers, a technical change that will paradoxically raise prices for many Obamacare plans
Abortion restrictions for cost-sharing reduction payments
Restrict coverage of abortions in many Obamacare plans
Student aid
Student loan repayment
Limit on income-driven repayment options. The parliamentarian ruled that the limited repayment options may not be applied to current borrowers.
Student loan eligibility for immigrants
Revoke eligibility for certain noncitizens
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Prohibit loan payments made while students are in medical or dental internships or residencies from counting toward forgiveness
Pell Grant expansion
Allow grants for short-term professional training certificates
Taxing College Endowments
Exemption for certain religious colleges
School Subsidy
New federal subsidy for private and religious schools
Food benefits
SNAP state matching funds
Requirement that states pay a portion of food aid costs in the SNAP program (formerly known as food stamps)
After the provision was rejected, Republicans said they had revised the language to comply with the rules. Democrats will have the opportunity to review the change and challenge it.
SNAP eligibility for certain immigrants
Limit food aid benefits to citizens or lawful permanent residents, with certain exceptions
This provision was rewritten. Republicans have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
Revised plan to require states to share in cost was approved by Parliamentarian
Permanent price support authority
A legislative mechanism usually addressed in the Farm Bill to prevent old agricultural laws from taking effect
Immigration and justice
State and local immigration enforcement
Funding for states to conduct border security and immigration enforcement
Republicans submitted a revised version of this provision that states that nothing in the section “shall authorize any state or local government to exercise immigration or border security authorities reserved exclusively to the federal government.” They have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
State and local law enforcement grant eligibility
Limit eligibility for grants for “sanctuary” jurisdictions, or if the attorney general disagrees with how states and localities enforce immigration policies
State and local authority to arrest noncitizens
Authority for state and local officials to arrest noncitizens suspected of being unlawfully present in the U.S.
Limitation on lawsuits against the federal government
Limit on preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders by requiring litigants to post potentially large bonds. This provision could have limited those seeking to block President Trump’s executive actions.
Limitation on the ability of the government to settle with third parties
Energy and environment
Repeal of green energy and emissions reduction programs
The parliamentarian ruled that the bill may take away funding from Inflation Reduction Act programs, but it may not repeal their authorization, so Congress could provide funding to them in the future.
This provision was rewritten. Republicans have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
Repeal of E.P.A. tailpipe emissions rule
Repeal of an E.P.A. regulation limiting vehicle emissions
Environmental reviews
A provision would have allowed project sponsors to expedite environmental reviews and avoid judicial scrutiny for a fee. The judicial review portion was found to violate the rules.
This provision was rewritten. Republicans have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
Environmental compliance
Automatic compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act for oil and gas lease sales
Geothermal leasing and royalties
Requirement for annual geothermal lease sales and changes to geothermal royalties
Mining road in Alaska
Approval for construction of the Ambler Road
Natural gas exports and imports
Fee for natural gas exporters to have their project “deemed to be in the public interest” and approved
Offshore oil and gas leasing
Requirement that leases be issued within 90 days of a sale
Public land sales
Mandatory sales of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land to allow for more housing
Renewable energy fees
Removal of the Interior secretary’s discretion to reduce fees for solar and wind projects on public land
Banking and financial regulation
Elimination of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau funding
This provision was rewritten. Republicans have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
Restoration attempt: Instead of eliminating DFPB’s funding Senators are trying cutting funding in half.
Elimination of the Office of Financial Research funding
The office is an independent bureau that is supposed to monitor risk on Wall Street
Elimination of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
The board is an auditing watchdog created after the 2001 Enron scandal
Reduction in pay of some Federal Reserve employees
Federal workers and government
Limits on agency rulemaking
A version of the REINS Act, which would give Congress more power over federal agency rules
Agency reorganization
Authorization for the executive branch to reorganize federal agencies
Retirement contributions and worker protections
Increase in the rate of required contributions to the federal retirement system for those who do not give up some civil service protections.
Restoration attempt: Raises retirement contribution to 15.6% of salary for all employees except Members of Congress and their staff.
Cost-cutter bonuses
Incentive program for federal employees to identify expenditures to cut
Worker complaints
Requirement that workers and former workers pay filing fees when they make complaints
Electric U.S.P.S. vehicles
Requirement that electric vehicles used by the Postal Service are sold
Fees for unions
New fee for federal worker unions’ use of agency resources
Other
Defense spending plan enforcement
Reduction in appropriations if Defense Department spending plans are not submitted on time
Coast Guard station repair
The section in violation would apply to a specific damaged station on South Padre Island, Texas
NASA space vehicle transfer
Transfer of space shuttle to a nonprofit in Houston from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum
This provision was rewritten. Republicans have not announced whether the parliamentarian has approved this change.
Gun Safety
Deregulating gun silencers stripped from the bill
Earned Income Tax Credit
Requirement that individuals who claim the credit obtain certification their child is eligible.
The following is from other secondary sources.
One provision has been sustained by the Parliamentarian:
- A provision that could prohibit states from regulating Artificial Intelligence for ten years in exchange for federal aid. (Observers comment that the Senate may pull this out of the bill anyhow.} Parliamentarian has now asked that this provision be revised.
Some important issues appear to be unresolved:
- The use of the “current policy baseline” to minimize the cost of the tax cut extension at a cost that could be $4.2 trillion over ten years.
- The House SALT revision
- Public land sales
Here is something else that New York Times reporter knew that I did not: She could get a list of struck provisions … from the office of the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee: the US Senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley.
There is lots to wonder about. Will the Senate pass a revised Bill? Will the House adopt the Senate Bill? Will they meet or fly right past the President’s deadline. He won’t mind, so long as he gets his bill. But will he get his bill?
I usually accompany a Len’s Political Note with information about additional candidates who you might support. In this piece about as aspect of the Senate as an institution, here are some organizations that warrant support:
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) This is the principal executive leadership board of the Democratic Party. They have recently had an election to choose a Director, See Len’s Political Note # . They have recently gone through some turmoil, in effect ejecting a Vice President for organizing opposition to some incumbents and losing two labor leaders. Regardless of the difficulties, the DNC must be healthy financially. DONATE.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The purpose of the DCCC is to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives. They have identified 35 districts that are in play. Support from the DCCC can provide a candidate with important resources. The political head of the DCCC is Congresswoman Susan Del Bene of Washington State. Democrats have a reasonable hope of flipping the House in 2026. Help them do that. DONATE to the DCCC
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC). The purpose of the DSCC is to elect Democratic Senators. Currently, there are 53 Republican Senators and 47 Senators who caucus with the Democrats. Support from the DSCC can provide a candidate with important resources. The political head of the DSCC is Kirsten Gillibrand, US Senator from New York. Some Democrats believe that there is a pathway for gaining Democratic control of the Senate. There may be, but it will take work and resources. Help achieve that goal. DONATE to the DSCC.