Key parts of the Senate budget proposal containing vast swathes of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda are on the chopping block — and more provisions could be in danger of being struck from the final bill.
The reason for elimination is not a lack of GOP votes nor obstruction from Senate Democrats, but Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, whom many observers have long viewed as one of the most powerful unelected officials in Washington. The nonpartisan MacDonough, whom late former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid appointed in 2012, is beginning to issue a spate of rulings to determine which provisions of the Senate draft are eligible to be included in Trump’s “one big, beautiful” bill.
MacDonough on Thursday advised that Senate Republicans would have to strike an array of banking and environmental-related provisions from their budget proposal that sought to deliver on key planks of the president’s agenda. The parliamentarian nixed GOP measures to roll back a Biden-era electric vehicle mandate and eliminate funding for an agency regulating the financial services industry that was the brainchild of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
MacDonough serves as a de-facto referee in the upper chamber to interpret Senate rules and her duties include determining which provisions meet the strict requirements governing the budget reconciliation process. Senate Republicans are using the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass the president’s budget bill by a simple majority vote, effectively allowing GOP senators to circumvent Democratic opposition.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is racing to pass the president’s tax and spending bill as early as Wednesday, and MacDonough is expected to play an outsized role in shaping the final product. Provisions that are ruled ineligible for the budget reconciliation process would have to pass the upper chamber by 60 votes, effectively giving Senate Democrats a say to block the provisions from passing in the Senate.
Senate Democrats have challenged key provisions of the GOP proposal as violating the stringent budget reconciliation rules that require each provision to impact spending or revenue — in an effort to nix the measures from the president’s budget package. MacDonough, who will provide guidance on which provisions comply with the budget reconciliation process, has begun to rule in Democrats’ favor on several topics, according to Senate Budget Committee Democrats.
The parliamentarian’s guidance threatens to infuriate GOP senators advocating for certain priorities to be included in the final bill and please Senate Democrats attempting to strike as many provisions from the bill as possible.
“As much as Senate Republicans would prefer to throw out the rule book and advance their families lose and billionaires win agenda, there are rules that must be followed and Democrats are making sure those rules are enforced,” Democratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the budget panel, said in a statement Thursday night.
MacDonough ruled Thursday that the Senate Banking Committee cannot eliminate funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and reduce the pay of certain Federal Reserve employees among other provisions. The parliamentarian’s guidance follows Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moving to dismantle the CFPB during the first 100 days of his presidency.
The Banking panel’s provisions were projected to save taxpayers nearly $9 billion over a ten-year period. The panel is required to cut at least $1 billion in spending over the next decade and is expected to rewrite their title of the budget bill in order to achieve enough spending reduction.
“I remain committed to advancing legislation that cuts waste and duplication in our federal government and saves taxpayer dollars,” Banking panel chairman Tim Scott wrote in a statement. “My colleagues and I remain committed to cutting wasteful spending at the CFPB and will continue working with the Senate parliamentarian on the Committee’s provisions.”
MacDonough took aim at several environmental provisions within the Senate’s draft proposal, including a proposal to give projects fast-tracked permitting reviews. She also ruled that a provision repealing a Biden Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have mandated that roughly 67% of new cars sold after model year 2032 be electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids is ineligible to be incorporated in the Senate budget bill.
Trump pledged to end all Biden-era regulations pushing electric vehicles on consumers during the campaign and GOP lawmakers have sought to rescind the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation in an effort to deliver on that promise.
MacDonough also advised that a provision repealing funding authorizations under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act violates the budget reconciliation process. The Biden EPA notably doled out billions in IRA funds to left-wing activist groups that advocated for open borders and defunding the U.S. military and glorified Hamas’ October 7th attacks against Israel.
The parliamentarian has yet to review provisions of the budget bill that enact a permanent extension of the president’s 2017 tax cuts and impose a moratorium on states’ regulation of artificial intelligence.
Trump has asked Congress to pass the budget bill quickly so he can sign the proposal into law by July 4.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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