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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Sat Jul 22, 2017, 12:51 PM Jul 2017

Dems Post List Of GOP OCare Provisions Said To Break Senate Rules

By TIERNEY SNEED Published JULY 21, 2017 6:46 PM

Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee posted a document Friday that they say reflects the various provisions in the GOP Obamacare replacement bill that the Senate parliamentarian has ruled to be not eligible for reconciliation, the process by which Republicans can avoid a Democratic filibuster. The Senate parliamentarian’s office did not immediately respond to attempts to confirm the parliamentarian’s rulings on the bill, which were expected Friday.

The document, according to Democrats, is the result of the so-called “Byrd Bath” — referring to Senate rule known as the Byrd rule, that imposes limits on when reconciliation can be used. The parliamentarian is tasked with making the call on which provisions comply with the rule. If they do not, they need 60 votes to pass, and Republicans only have 52 senators.

A Republican aide on the Budget Committee told TPM that the list was guidance for a prior draft and not a formal ruling from the parliamentarian. Senate Republicans also have the option of overruling the parliamentarian, but that comes at a risk of gutting a Senate norm in a way that may come back to haunt them when Democrats are back in power.

A spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Twitter resurfaced a quote from McConnell in March suggesting he would not be inclined to overrule the parliamentarian.