{"id":34627,"date":"2025-08-17T01:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=34627"},"modified":"2025-08-17T01:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:14:16","slug":"senate-gop-must-think-ahead-this-time-and-remove-the-senate-parliamentarian-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/senate-gop-must-think-ahead-this-time-and-remove-the-senate-parliamentarian-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate GOP must think ahead this time and remove the Senate parliamentarian now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Kristan Hawkins, Opinion Contributor, originally published July 29, 2025, The Hill<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\u00a0President Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>push for his\u00a0\u201c<\/em>big, beautiful\u201d budget bill,<\/a>\u00a0either a betrayal or a political blunder occurred as an unelected bureaucrat became the most powerful person in the U.S. Congress. Before we go any further with a new budget \u2014 a process that is\u00a0already underway<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that needs to change.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump campaigned with the message that federal engagement on the abortion issue should be cut back<\/a>. Although I disagree given the life-and-death stakes, I admire his commitment to tackle hard issues. And few things are harder than cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S. House budget, pro-life leaders\u00a0fought for abortion vendors to be cut from the nation\u2019s health care<\/a>\u00a0for a period of 10 years \u2014 a historic legacy for Trump, Speaker\u00a0Mike Johnson\u00a0<\/a>and the GOP. But the U.S. Senate dropped that ball by choosing to play by rules that others haven\u2019t always followed, allowing an umpire into the political game who seems to be playing for the other team. As a consequence, the funding cutoff now lasts just one year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When key Republican-backed provisions of the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d<\/a> were gutted in the Senate,<\/a> the executioner was not one of the elected leaders charged with representing taxpayers. The person wielding the blade, rather, was an unelected,<\/a> deep-state bureaucrat: U.S. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parliamentarian position was created in the 1930s<\/a> as an advisory role to weigh in on the statutes and procedures guiding the legislative process. It was not created by the Founding Fathers to ensure a check on congressional decision-making, and it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. In 2012, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a notoriously shrewd<\/a> political operator from Nevada, appointed MacDonough<\/a> to what has too often been a nearly lifetime role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raised in the shadow of Washington, D.C., MacDonough has\u00a0long-term ties<\/a>\u00a0to establishment politicians, receiving praise from Republican Senate legend\u00a0Bob Dole<\/a>\u00a0and advising Democratic Vice President\u00a0Al Gore\u00a0<\/a>on counting electoral votes after his election battle in\u00a0Bush v. Gore<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is the core of the problem. The Senate parliamentarian is sometimes nothing but an enforcer of the status quo, the so-called \u201cuniparty<\/a>\u201d or swamp. No law demands that the advice of the Senate parliamentarian must be obeyed. Parliamentarians serve at the pleasure of the Senate majority leader. The current leader, Sen.\u00a0John Thune\u00a0<\/a>(R-S.D.), can fire this one at any time or simply ignore her ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically speaking, that has happened before.\u00a0In 1975, Republican Vice President\u00a0Nelson Rockefeller\u00a0<\/a>stepped in to overrule the parliamentarian<\/a>\u00a0on a budget fight. In 2001, Majority Leader\u00a0Trent Lott\u00a0<\/a>(R-Miss.)\u00a0fired then-Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove<\/a>\u00a0after he issued an interpretation of the rules that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to pass President\u00a0George W. Bush\u2019s $1.35 trillion tax cut.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, MacDonough\u2019s pal Harry Reid\u00a0changed the rules<\/a>\u00a0to allow for cloture on Judicial nominations, as did Senate Majority Leader\u00a0Mitch McConnell\u00a0<\/a>(R-Ky.) in 2017,\u00a0to allow<\/a>\u00a0for cloture on Supreme Court nominations and to enact the\u00a0Trump tax cuts<\/a>. And during the\u00a0Biden\u00a0<\/a>presidency, House Democrats sent a letter signed by almost every party member demanding Senate Majority Leader\u00a0Chuck Schumer\u00a0<\/a>(D-N.Y.) overrule the parliamentarian\u00a0on votes regarding immigration<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0minimum wage laws.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as recently as this year, Republicans, led by\u00a0Thune\u00a0<\/a>himself,\u00a0voted to go against the parliamentarian<\/a>\u00a0when they motioned to strip California of the ability to set its own emission standards. Overruling the parliamentarian\u2019s advice was accomplished with a simple majority vote. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why didn\u2019t that happen here, when the Senate took up the House version of the funding bill?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the fight over the bill, some Republican lawmakers highlighted the parliamentarian\u2019s political intrusion. GOP Rep.\u00a0Greg Steube\u00a0<\/a>of Florida\u00a0said on X,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cHow is it that an unelected swamp bureaucrat, who was appointed by\u00a0Harry Reid\u00a0<\/a>over a decade ago, gets to decide what can and cannot go in President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alabama Republican Sen.\u00a0Tommy Tuberville\u00a0<\/a>echoed the sentiment,\u00a0posting:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThis is a perfect example of why Americans hate THE SWAMP. \u202f Unelected bureaucrats think they know better than U.S. Congressmen who are elected BY THE PEOPLE. \u202f Her job is not to push a woke agenda. \u202f THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good advice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategically speaking, a one-year cutoff makes no sense. It sets Republicans up for a difficult midterm election, as an abortion debate will be in full swing when the cutoff ends on October 1 of the election year. My organization will score any attempt to add back spending for Planned Parenthood and all abortion vendors, but the pain of that process \u2014 if it repeats in one-year increments \u2014 will be self-inflicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Republicans are serious about being a governing party and surviving the midterms, they must build a better team. Why is the parliamentarian still there if she has proven to be an obstacle to Trump\u2019s platform? To paraphrase the president, many people are asking<\/a>. Before we start this entire budgeting process again for fiscal 2027, Majority Leader Thune must replace MacDonough with a procedural adviser who doesn\u2019t try to legislate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Republicans fail to act now, they deserve a one-way ticket out of Washington in 2026 courtesy of the American people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Kristan Hawkins, Opinion Contributor, originally published July 29, 2025, The Hill During\u00a0President Trump\u2019s\u00a0push for his\u00a0\u201cbig, beautiful\u201d budget bill,\u00a0either a betrayal or a political blunder occurred as an unelected bureaucrat became the most powerful person in the U.S. Congress. Before we go any further with a new budget \u2014 a process that is\u00a0already underway\u00a0\u2014 that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate GOP must think ahead this time and remove the Senate parliamentarian now - Cincinnati Right to Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/senate-gop-must-think-ahead-this-time-and-remove-the-senate-parliamentarian-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate GOP must think ahead this time and remove the Senate parliamentarian now - Cincinnati Right to Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Kristan Hawkins, Opinion Contributor, originally published July 29, 2025, The Hill During\u00a0President Trump\u2019s\u00a0push for his\u00a0\u201cbig, beautiful\u201d budget bill,\u00a0either a betrayal or a political blunder occurred as an unelected bureaucrat became the most powerful person in the U.S. Congress. 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