No one chose her and you don’t listen to much about her, but she is about to be one of the most important people in Capitol Hill.
The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, can generally be perched on the Senate DAIS, helping to ensure that the Senate’s floor works according to the rules. But he is about to participate in the paper as a referee of the Senate’s reconciliation package, where he will have the last word about whether a series of key provisions in the act of a large bill and passed through the house agree with the rules of the Senate.
Senate Republicans want to make changes to the bill that the Chamber approved by a single vote and sent them. But the rules of the Senate could force a series of changes that also find less desirable. A veto of any provision of Macdonough could mean that the main parts of the package are thrown to the road, so their failures will be closely observed by Democrats and Republicans in the coming weeks.
MacDonough is responsible for calling whether the provisions in the bill are in line with the Byrd rule, which bears the name of the late Senator Robert Byrd, who helped institute the rules that govern packages of budget reconciliation as the “great and beautiful bill” of President Donald Trump.
The Capitol building is observed on May 31, 2025 in Washington, DC
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Macdonough has been parliamentary since 2012 after serving as an assistant parliamentary assistant for 10 years. She is the first woman to occupy the work since she was created in 1935.
It was called to make several decisions when the Democrats used reconciliation to obtain the inflation reduction law of then President Joe Biden approved in 2022, as well as the Covid relief package the previous year. He also advised President of Justice John Roberts during Trump’s political trials.
The Byrd rule
For the Senate to use the reconciliation process, which allows you to approve budget packages such as this with a simple majority of votes instead of the usual 60 necessary to overcome the Senate’s filibuster, everything in the bill must follow the Byrd rule.
In the Senate, the budget committee process that reviews the bill and the parliamentarian to ensure that it depends on SNUFF is sometimes blatantly called as the “Byrd Bath”.
So what are the rules?
The Byrd rule prohibits the Senate from including any “strange disposition” in budget law. Anything in the bill, according to the rule, should be necessary to implement the underlying budget resolution that Congress has already approved.
In a nutshell: if a policy arrangement does not have an effect on the budget, it cannot be included. Even budgetary changes that are “merely incidental” to policy provisions are considered out of order.
Now, things are always a bit more complicated in the Senate. The Byrd rule also prohibits Congress from touching social security in a draft reconciliation law, of increasing the deficit for a fiscal year beyond the period included in the bill, and more. But its basic form is this: everything in the bill must be related to the budget.
It may seem in weeds, but this review process can have a significant impact on reconciliation invoices. In the “better build” package backed by the Democrats in 2022, for example, the parliamentarian hit a series of provisions that the Democrats wanted to focus on immigration reform. The Democrats ended up having to give up those provisions to approve their package under then President Joe Biden.
The elements of the agenda of great policies that are critical for some Republicans in the act of a great bill, in theory, could be cut by the parliamentarian, so the process is important.
What does it mean for Trump’s Megabill?
There are a number of provisions that face a faint path in the Senate due to the Byrd rule.
Democrats are already promising to fight the policies that say they are out of service.
“In the Senate, our committees have been working overtime to prepare for Byrd’s bathroom, aimed at the litany of the policies included in the Republican Plan that clearly violate the rules of reconciliation and, in some cases, an assault on our very democracy,” the senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, wrote in a letter to his colleagues on Sunday night.
Ultimately, we will have to wait for Macdonough to rule, but if it sounds like a policy and not a budget, it could be at risk.
Here are some provisions in the bill with the house that seem to be potentially at risk of being beaten by the parliamentarian. This is not an exhaustive list and does not take into account the things that Senate Republicans may want to change or eliminate the bill:
AI regulations: The Chamber’s Law project includes a language that prohibits state and local governments to enforce “any law or regulation that regulates artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems or automated decision systems” for a period of 10 years.
Federal Court provisions: The bill creates a new requirement that could restrict how the parties that demand the federal government obtain relief in court. Senator Joni Ernst, a Iowa Republican, as recently as Friday suggested in a town hall, when he is pressed by a constituent about the disposition, which would probably not pass in the BYRD bath. “I do not see any argument that can make this affect mandatory spending or income, so I do not see that I do not see that I enter the Senate’s bill,” Ernst said then.
Prohibition of financing of Planned Parenthood: The Chamber’s Bill includes a provision that would prohibit Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood if it provides abortion services. The parliamentarian stripped a similar provision of a 2017 reconciliation package. It is logical reason why she could govern this round in a similar way.
