(The Center Square) – Senate Republicans are itching to finalize and pass their version of the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but a new ruling from the Senate parliamentarian requires them to nix some wish list items.
Because Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to fast-track the multitrillion-dollar policy bill, their proposals need to abide by the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits budget reconciliation bills to provisions with direct budgetary impacts.
If the parliamentarian finds provisions that violate this rule, lawmakers must either strip them from the bill or lose the ability to pass the legislation in the Senate with a simple majority vote. Republicans have packed much of President Donald Trump’s tax, border, energy, and defense agenda inside the bill and are hoping to send it to his desk by July 4.
But Republican leaders are already struggling to secure enough votes from their own party and cannot afford to lose the majority vote privilege. As such, Senate committees will have to remove certain environment and financial services-related pieces that the parliamentarian condemned Thursday.
The Environment and Public Works Committee must cut a controversial provision that would have allowed businesses sponsoring infrastructure projects to pay their way out of environmental assessments, including judicial review and public comment.
Another section which would have repealed statutory authorizations for programs entitled to Inflation Reduction Act funds will also get axed. Clawbacks of unobligated IRA funds, however, can stay in the bill, making up hundreds of billions in savings.
A third environment-related provision in the OBBBA ruled invalid was Republicans’ plan to repeal the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting tailpipe emissions.
The Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee suffered a major blow with the parliamentarian ruling that its plan to zero out funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — in practice, eliminating the agency entirely — violated the Byrd Rule. Republicans were counting on that provision as a source of $6.4 billion in savings.
In fact, the committee may have to rewrite their portion of the megabill entirely. Three other sections, which cumulatively provided $2.46 billion in savings, must also go. Republicans will not be able to cut the pay of Federal Reserve staff, reduce funding for the Office of Financial Research, or eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as they wished to.
A measure intended to increase fiscal accountability in the Pentagon – which has failed seven consecutive audits – failed to make the cut as well. The Armed Services committee will have to remove the provision, which would have reduced the amount of funding the OBBBA allocates to the DOD if the department fails to submit plans on time regarding how it will spend the money.
The parliamentarian’s review of the OBBBA is still ongoing. Republicans and Democrats are scheduled Sunday to make their arguments for and against the Senate’s tax and healthcare portions of the bill.
Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said his party “will continue examining every provision” in the bill and will “scrutinize it to the furthest extent.” Democrats are expected to challenge at least 60 provisions in the OBBBA.
