Trump rebuffed on demand to fire Senate parliamentarian 

Last week President Trump demanded in a Truth Social post that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) fire the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. Her offense? She had found his request to include $1 billion for White House ballroom security in the budget reconciliation bill violated the so-called “Byrd rule” which bars “extraneous” matters from inclusion in reconciliation bills.

Reconciliation is the process whereby the House and Senate budget committees direct other committees to report legislation adjusting levels of spending and revenues to conform to budget resolution targets. The Byrd rule, authored by former Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) in 1986, and made permanent in 1990, imposes specific constraints on what can be included in reconciliation. This is significant, because unlike most legislation, reconciliation bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority.

The White House ballroom, now under construction, has been a lightning rod for controversy on the Hill ever since Trump first announced that he was unilaterally moving forward on construction without Congress’s consent, using $400 million in privately donated money to pay for the project. His belated request to then pay for related security measures, using a billion dollars in taxpayer money through reconciliation, provoked outrage among members of both houses and both parties.

Thune said the president was entitled to his opinion on the parliamentarian’s ruling, but said such targeting is “concerning” because it........

© The Hill