Senate Republicans are scrambling this week to finalize and pass the bill containing much of President Trump’s legislative agenda. GOP leaders are still aiming to have the Senate hold a vote-a-rama on a slew of amendments starting Thursday and to get the giant tax-and-spending package to the president’s desk by July 4 — just 11 days from now — but they’ve got a lot of work left to do.
The GOP plan is still undergoing the so-called Byrd Bath, the process in which Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rules on whether its provisions meet the criteria to be included in a reconciliation bill and bypass the Senate’s usual requirement for a 60-vote supermajority. Items in the bill must address spending, revenue or the debt limit, not strict policy matters.
MacDonough has already delivered several setbacks for Republicans, ruling against some provisions, including:
* SNAP-ping back. Republicans were planning to force states to take on more costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, based on the states’ payment error rates. The plan also would have removed SNAP eligibility for immigrants who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents, with limited exceptions. Some Republicans had raised concerns that the SNAP changes would be politically costly.
The Senate had already scaled back a plan by House Republicans that would have cut nearly $300 billion from the program. But, as Politico notes, the loss of the Senate bill’s scaled-back SNAP savings leaves Republicans looking for more cuts to help pay for their plans, including a $67 billion farm bill package: “Although the committee’s bill hadn’t received a final cost saving estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, committee staff predicted it would save around $211 billion in agriculture spending, with the cost-share plan making up a large portion of those trims.”
Politico says that Republicans believe they may be able to salvage the SNAP changes by tweaking the language in the legislation and clarifying how payment error rates will factor into state costs.
* CFPB is protected. Republicans were looking to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by eliminating its funding to save $6.4 billion. But the CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve, not Congress, so on Friday, MacDonough knocked out that measure, along with other elements of the Senate Banking Committee’s portion of the bill.
“I remain committed to advancing legislation that cuts waste and duplication in our federal government and saves taxpayer dollars,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, said in a statement. “My colleagues and I remain committed to cutting wasteful spending at the CFPB and will continue working with the Senate parliamentarian on the Committee's provisions.”
* Restrictions on federal judges nixed. The parliamentarian ruled against a provision that would have restricted the power of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions or restraining orders. Those orders have stymied some Trump administration plans and frustrated Republican lawmakers and administration officials — though the Biden and Obama administrations also saw some of their plans halted by such court rulings. “We successfully fought for rule of law and struck out this reckless and downright un-American provision,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Republicans can still include these measures in their bill, but they would require 60 votes to pass. The GOP has a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
MacDonough also ruled against a restriction on grant funding for so-called sanctuary cities, but she upheld a proposal that ties federal grants for broadband access to a ban on state and local government regulations on AI.
What’s next: Republicans were reportedly making final arguments to MacDonough today on the Finance Committee portion of the bill, which includes the Senate GOP’s Medicaid changes. Senate Republicans were scheduled to hold a conference meeting Monday night for an update on the status of the bill and sticking points. Ahead of a planned Independence Day recess starting this weekend, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune is reportedly prepared to keep the Senate in session until it passes the reconciliation bill.
The bottom line: At this point, for the bill to get to Trump’s desk by July 4, the House would have to swallow whatever changes the Senate might approve, but House Republicans are already raising some alarms over the Senate version of the legislation, and GOP divisions remain on key issues including Medicaid cuts, clean energy tax credits and the deduction for state and local taxes.