Republican lawmakers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Senate as the parliamentarian continues to hack away at key provisions in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
The latest ruling from the Senate parliamentarian has sent Republicans into a tailspin. It struck several Medicaid-related reforms that many conservatives fought for. Some of these provisions include limiting federal funds to states that allow illegal aliens to receive Medicaid benefits, prohibiting federal funds for "gender-affirming care," and preventing non-expansion states from increasing their current provider tax rates.
'The Senate should know better than to send a bill with this waste of taxpayer money back to the House.'
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"How is it that an unelected swamp bureaucrat, who was appointed by Harry Reid over a decade ago, gets to decide what can and cannot go in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill? The Senate Parliamentarian is not elected," Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida said in a post on X. "She is not accountable to the American people. Yet she holds veto power over legislation supported by millions of voters."
"We are trying to undo the America LAST insanity from the Democrats by kicking illegals off of Medicare and Medicaid and stopping taxpayer subsidies from being used for genital mutilation of children!!" Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said in a post on X.
Although the parliamentarian is able to issue advisory rulings over which provisions are in violation of the Byrd Rule, they can be overruled, which is what Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas is calling for.
"The rogue Senate Parliamentarian should be overruled, just like activist judges."
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It's not just the Medicaid provisions that have sparked outrage amongs Republican lawmakers. The Senate has hardly rolled back Biden-era green-energy subsidies that were implemented through the Inflation Reduction Act. Many Republicans in the House made it clear that aggressive cuts were nonnegotiable, yet the Senate is extending certain solar and wind subsidies through at least 2030 and in some cases through 2040.
"The American people are sick and tired of their tax dollars funding Chinese solar panels and inefficient wind turbines that are destroying our land," Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois told Blaze News. "President Trump made it clear he wants no Green New Scam tax credits in the big, beautiful bill. The Senate must follow the House's lead and get it done — this is our opportunity to protect our farmland, our food supply, and our energy independence."
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“Congress has a chance to end the left’s Green New Scam for good, but if Senate Republicans swap the House’s firm ‘placed in service’ deadline for the vague ‘construction begins’ standard, we will fail to deliver on President Trump’s promise," Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin told Blaze News. "This loophole would let wind and solar subsidies drag on for years — long after Trump’s second term — destroying American farmland and threatening our power grid."
"Americans didn’t elect Republicans to rubber-stamp Joe Biden’s radical Green New Deal scam," Self said in a post on X. "The Senate’s watered-down 'Big Beautiful Bill' wastes billions on climate schemes."
Republicans maintained that if the Senate punts this "watered-down" bill back to the House, they will likely not have the votes to pass the bill before the July 4 deadline.
"Biden's Green New Scam offers massive, unchecked subsidies to billion-dollar corporations and Chinese manufacturers, undermining American energy independence and economic freedom," Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina told Blaze News. "Yet the Senate is reportedly gutting our hard-fought House measures to stop these tax giveaways. President Trump wants them gone, and so do I. The Senate should know better than to send a bill with this waste of taxpayer money back to the House.”
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The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that several key provisions in the "big, beautiful bill" violate the Byrd Rule, potentially setting the stage for the provisions to be removed altogether.
In order to avoid a filibuster and pass the bill under a simple majority, the legislation needs to be compliant with the Byrd Rule, which prevents "extraneous" provisions from being included in reconciliation. The "extraneous" provisions MacDonough ruled against include key climate and financial provisions.
Although these rulings can be contentious, they are not set in stone.
One provision the parliamentarian ruled against came from the Senate Banking Committee's reconciliation text, which would have cut $6.4 billion in funding from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She also ruled against cutting $1.4 billion by reducing the wages for Federal Reserve staff, cutting $293 million from the Office of Financial Research, and cutting $771 million by abolishing the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
MacDonough also ruled against a provision that would repeal green energy subsidies authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as certain tailpipe emission standards put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Although these rulings can be contentious, they are not set in stone. James Wallner, vice president of policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, told Blaze News that the parliamentarian's rulings are based on precedent and provide an advisory role subject to the chair.
"There's how it works on paper, and then how it works in practice," Wallner said. "The parliamentarian is just a staffer. So we have a parliamentarian because you have all these different procedural authorities and Senate rules. The Senate rules, though, are very vague, and they are many pages long."
"So you have all these rules, but oftentimes what happens is the rule isn't very explicit, and there are ambiguities," Wallner added. "So when there are ambiguities, the parliamentarian will advise the Senate. At least in theory."
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Wallner said the parliamentarian works alongside both majority and minority committee staff to identify provisions that violate the Byrd Rule. Once the parliamentarian issues a ruling, a senator has to raise a point of order on the floor about the Byrd violations. The parliamentarian then advises the chair, who ultimately makes the final decision as to whether the provision in question is a violation.
Although MacDonough ultimately serves in an advisory capacity, Wallner told Blaze News that senators often like to point the finger at the parliamentarian.
"Senators talk about her as if she's the only one who decides," Wallner said. "But it's a very convenient way for them to kind of pass the buck and act like they're not in charge. The parliamentarian has no power to actually issue it authoritatively."
"It can be adversarial, but it's through that adversarial process that you really get a robust discussion of these provisions," Wallner added.
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The Senate measure reportedly eliminates a $5 billion cap on the program, but it also strips protections for educational freedom and allows Democrat states to bypass the program all together.
Senate Republicans obviously shouldn’t outsource their legislative prerogatives to the parliamentarian.
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