Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' heads for showdown with Senate parliamentarian [View all]
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/
(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)
= new reply since forum marked as read