The Senate rules-keeper has decided that Republicans can’t use President Donald Trump’s multitrillion dollar tax bill to strip all funding from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to cut salaries for many Federal Reserve employees.
The parliamentarian ruled that the GOP-backed policy provisions are outside the scope of the fast-track budget process Republicans are using to push Trump’s legislative agenda through without any Democratic backing, Senate Democrats said. Republicans didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The budget process, which is immune to a filibuster, can be used for legislation primarily aimed at revenue and spending, not for making other changes to public policy.
Senate Republicans are planning to begin voting on their version of the $3 trillion tax and spending cut bill next week.
The GOP bill would have eliminated CFPB’s funding and it would have saved $1.4 billion by cutting nonmonetary policy employee pay at the Fed to match levels at the Treasury Department.
The rules-keeper also rejected provisions eliminating the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Environmental Protection Agency air-pollution emissions standards for vehicles.
The ruling on the CFPB is the latest blow to the Trump administration’s attempt to gut the agency, which has been the subject of court fights.
Democrats plan to challenge dozens of other provisions as violating Senate rules. These include sections curtailing regulations on short-barrel shotguns and silencers as well as applying financial pressure to states to stop them from regulating artificial intelligence.
“We will continue examining every provision in this Great Betrayal of a bill and will scrutinize it to the furthest extent,” the Senate Budget Committee’s top Democrat, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters this month that he would oppose efforts to overrule the Senate parliamentarian. When the GOP is in the minority, Thune has argued, the 60-vote threshold for such bills is a vital tool.
More decisions from the Senate rules-keeper are expected in the coming days.
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