A top Senate official on Thursday rejected a slew of major provisions in Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, sending party leaders scrambling to find other ways to help offset the massive cost of the legislation a week before the July 4 deadline President Trump set for its enactment.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian who enforces the chamber’s rules, said several of the measures in the legislation that would provide tens of billions of dollars in savings could not be included in the legislation in their current form. They include one that would crack down on strategies that many states have developed to obtain more federal Medicaid funds and another that would limit repayment options for student loan borrowers.
The rulings dealt a blow to Senate Republicans as they rush to pass the behemoth legislation by Mr. Trump’s deadline. Party leaders had hoped to begin voting on the bill this weekend, in order to allow time for the House, which must give final approval to any changes, to pass it early next week, clearing it for the president’s signature.
Republicans are moving the bill through Congress using special rules that shield it from a filibuster, depriving Democrats of the ability to block it. But to qualify for that protection, the legislation must comply with a rigorous set of budgetary restrictions meant to ensure that it will not add to the deficit.
The Senate parliamentarian, an official appointed by the chamber’s leaders to enforce its rules and precedents, must evaluate those measures to ensure that every provision meets those requirements.
Ms. MacDonough’s rulings are closely held by senators and are not released to the public. So it was unclear whether she had suggested the provisions were essentially unsalvageable, or merely needed to be modified.
Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee, for example, believe they will be able to restore a key provision that Ms. MacDonough earlier struck that would push some of the costs of the food nutrition program known as SNAP to the states.
Furious House Republicans on Thursday were agitating for another option: overruling Ms. MacDonough altogether.
“The Senate Parliamentarian is not elected. She is not accountable to the American people. Yet she holds veto power over legislation supported by millions of voters,” Representative Greg Steube of Florida wrote on social media.
Republican senators could vote to steer around her guidance, but that move would deal a substantial blow to the filibuster. The vote would set a new precedent that senators can ignore the parliamentarian on budget matters whenever they can muster a majority to do so, and Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, has repeatedly pledged not to take such action.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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