Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and the Republican majority should follow the guidance of the Senate Parliamentarian on the tax and budget bill, 45 groups said in a letter sent today.
The Parliamentarian is tasked with issuing rulings to determine which provisions of the bill are subject to the “Byrd rule” and thus not eligible to be passed by simple majority using the reconciliation process. However, Thune and the Senate Republican majority recently took steps to override the Parliamentarian’s guidance on the Congressional Review Act, another fast-track legislative mechanism, to pass a measure by simple majority that otherwise would have required 60 votes.
“While the signatories to this letter have a range of views on the ongoing utility of the Senate filibuster, there is a unifying principle upon which we all can agree: the law as it stands must be followed,” the letter reads. “Indeed, you acknowledged as much earlier this Congress, when asked whether you would advise against moving to override the Senate Parliamentarian’s determinations under Byrd, stating, ‘[T]hat’s totally akin to killing the filibuster. We can’t go there. People need to understand that.’ This public stance would be heartening, had you not made similar assurances on maintaining the integrity of CRA process and followed them up by improperly extending that Act’s expedited procedures to the disapproval of any executive branch action, forging a primrose path around the filibuster in the process. Such depredations on law, precedent, and the institution of the Senate must end.”
“The Senate majority has already demonstrated it is willing to follow or ignore the rules based entirely on their preferences. But lives hang in the balance depending on the outcome of this bill, and it would be inexcusable for the majority to again burn the rulebook in the service of the destructive Trump agenda,” added Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen.
“The leadership in the Senate is heading down a dangerous path of ignoring the rules to get what it wants. If the Senate majority disregards the existing rules again for its massive tax bill, that would do incalculable damage to law, precedent, and the institution of the Senate,” added Kyle Jones, director of federal affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
