Trump allies call for Senate parliamentarian to be removed. Who is Elizabeth MacDonough?

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WASHINGTON - Republican are calling for the Senate's parliamentarian to be fired after she ruled that several Medicaid provisions must be taken out of President Donald Trump’s tax, spending and policy bill, spelling trouble for the president and his party as they try to get the legislation signed into law by a self-imposed July 4 deadline.

The chamber's leading rules expert, Elizabeth MacDonough, sided on June 26 against the inclusion of provisions that the GOP wanted to put in the bill aimed at reducing spending on Medicaid by requiring work from able-bodied adults and denying access to non-citizens. That didn't go over well with deficit hawks trying to secure for Trump his biggest legislative win of his second term.

“This is a perfect example of why Americans hate THE SWAMP. Unelected bureaucrats think they know better than U.S. Congressmen who are elected BY THE PEOPLE. Her job is not to push a woke agenda.THE SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN SHOULD BE FIRED ASAP,” Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville wrote on X. 

Republican Reps. Greg Steube of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Dan Crenshaw of Texas also called for Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fire MacDonough. “I don’t think it’s good strategy to die on every hill, but THIS is a hill we should fight for,” Crenshaw wrote on X. 

For now, it appears MacDonough's job is secure: Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters the GOP had no plans to overrule its parliamentarian, let alone fire her. Still, it’s not the first time MacDonough has faced partisan pushback in Congress. Democrats have also railed against her decisions when they held the White House.

Who is Elizabeth MacDonough?

MacDonough is the first female parliamentarian of the Senate, a role that then-Majority Leader Harry Reid promoted her to in 2012. The parliamentarian's responsibilities include advising senators and other staff about the chamber's rules and statutes, and managing the process of referring bills to committees, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

When Congress aims to pass budget reconciliation bills, such as the one being negotiated in the Senate, the parliamentarian can strike out any provisions that are extraneous and non-budgetary in nature under a process known as “Byrd Bath,” named after the late-Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia.

Though MacDonough is rarely one of the most visible figures on Capitol Hill, she can be the most crucial at times. In 2021, for instance, Democrats complained after she ruled that they couldn’t include a provision to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour in an economic stimulus bill then-President Joe Biden was pushing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MacDonough also advised Chief Justice John Roberts during both of Trump’s Senate impeachment trials, including the one that came in response to rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. MacDonough's office was ransacked during the melee and, according to The New York Times, she returned to work days after the attack wearing a hazmat suit.

Asked on June 26 if Trump agreed with the calls from inside the GOP to remove the Senate parliamentarian, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied that she hasn’t spoken to Trump about the topic.

“He knows this is part of the process and the inner-workings of the Senate,” Leavitt said. “He wants to see this bill done. He remains very much engaged in these conversations and in this process with lawmakers in both the Senate and the House side, and the whole White House does as well.”