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Republicans are calling for the removal of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after she ruled that some of the measures outlined in President Donald Trump’s signature “Big, Beautiful Bill” could not be included on budgetary grounds.
MacDonough blocked several measures in the legislation that would have provided tens of billions of dollars in savings, including one that would have shut down state strategies for obtaining federal Medicaid funding and another that would have limited student loan repayment options.
MacDonough is the first woman to hold the office since its founding in 1935. The parliamentarian is primarily responsible for advising the upper chamber of Congress on adherence to the law, with the House having its own parliamentarian to perform the same function.
They are also charged with providing information to members of Congress and their staff on a strictly nonpartisan and confidential basis.
Her actions leave lawmakers scrambling to make cost-cutting compromises over the weekend ahead of their July 4 deadline.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville raged on X on Thursday evening: “President Trump’s landslide victory was a MANDATE from 77 million Americans. The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on that mandate. The Parliamentarian is trying to UNDERMINE the President’s mandate and should be fired.”
Florida Rep. Greg Steube called MacDonough “an unelected swamp bureaucrat,” complaining that she is not accountable to voters.
“It is time for our elected leaders to take back control,” he continued. “JD Vance should overrule the Parliamentarian and let the will of the people, not some staffer hiding behind Senate procedure, determine the future of this country.”
Appearing on Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo Show, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul fumed that MacDonough’s authority to determine which provisions in the legislation are matters of policy or budget allowed her excessive discretion and would be best left up to lawmakers.
“I think most Americans would be perplexed to know why an unelected person is making these decisions,” he said. “These are profound, big decisions.”
Summarizing his argument, Paul said: “Essentially, it’s this. When we have reconciliation, there’s a question: Is the predominant effect of the portion of the legislation about the budget, or is it about policy? But a lot of things are a tough call, and they can be about both policy and budget, as I think this is.
“This person who has not been elected by anybody can’t be unelected, can’t be removed from office, and for which the public has no way of expressing displeasure is making these decisions.
“It’s a terrible situation, and it’s a bizarre sort of situation that we are all beholden. No one has voted for this person.”
Unlike Tuberville and Steube, Paul was careful to make clear he did not object to MacDonough personally.
MacDonough initially worked in the Senate library, left to earn a law degree from Vermont Law School, and then advanced through the Justice Department before being appointed to her present position by then-Speaker Harry Reid in 2012. She was retained by Republican Mitch McConnell when he became majority leader in 2015.
She steered the Senate through Trump’s first and historic second impeachment trials during his first term and had her office ransacked by Capitol rioters on January 6 2021.
But she has also frustrated Democratic ambitions, notably blocking Joe Biden’s administration from including a minimum wage hike in his Covid-19 relief bill in the pandemic and dropping immigration provisions from the party’s climate legislation.
The House and Senate parliamentarians make recommendations, but they can be overruled; the final decision lies with the presiding officer overseeing the proceedings.
Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told the Associated Press he believed Republicans are unlikely to challenge MacDonough and that both sides regard her as “very much an honest broker.”
“The Senate relies on her,” he said. “Sometimes, those decisions cut your way, and sometimes, they don’t. I also think members recognize that once you start treating the parliamentarian’s advice as just something that could be easily dismissed, then the rules start to matter less.”
