Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled that certain provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are not germane to the process under which Republicans are trying to pass the measure, according to the Senate Budget Committee on June 19.
The GOP is seeking to pass the bill under the reconciliation process, which exempts the bill from the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold that applies to most legislation.
Known as the Byrd Rule, reconciliation can only deal with spending, government revenue, and the national debt. Democrats have unanimously opposed the GOP-led bill.
The parliamentarian ruled that cutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s maximum funding cap to zero percent, thereby effectively defunding it, is out of order. The cap is currently $6.4 billion.
The Trump administration, advised by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has sought to shut down the bureau, which oversees financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies.
Republicans have criticized it for not being subject to congressional oversight and for getting its funding through the Federal Reserve, as opposed to directly from Congress.
The parliamentarian also said that cutting the pay of Federal Reserve staff by $1.4 billion is not germane to reconciliation rules.
Cuts to the Financial Research Fund and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board were also ruled as being out of order.
They amounted to $293 million and $771 million in cuts, respectively. The latter would have been eliminated under that provision.
Additionally, MacDonough ruled that undoing funding and statutory authorizations under the Inflation Reduction Act could not be done through reconciliation.
Moreover, the parliamentarian said that a provision reducing appropriations to the Department of Defense if it does not send budget proposals on time goes against the Byrd Rule, which was named for former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been criticized for sending what lawmakers called a rough and skinny budget for the Pentagon ahead of Congress debating appropriations bills.
“The Senate rules prevent it from cutting ‘discretionary’ spending—[for example] the Department of Education or federal grants. The DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary, not mandatory.”
Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) celebrated the parliamentarian’s rulings.
“As much as Senate Republicans would prefer to throw out the rule book and advance their families-lose-and-billionaires-win agenda, there are rules that must be followed, and Democrats are making sure those rules are enforced.
“We will continue examining every provision in this Great Betrayal of a bill and will scrutinize it to the furthest extent.”
In what is known as a “Byrd Bath,” MacDonough will continue to hear from Republicans and Democrats on why certain provisions should or should not be allowed in the reconciliation bill.
Senate Republicans could overrule MacDonough’s rulings, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said they will not do so.
“We’re not going there,” he told reporters this month.
