President Donald Trump is calling for the Senate parliamentarian to be fired after she ruled over the weekend that a plan drafted by Republican lawmakers to provide $1 billion in funding for the White House ballroom did not follow the rules.
“Two sources” confirmed to NOTUS that Trump had reportedly called for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to fire Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough over her decision.
Another source told the outlet that Trump shared “his frustrations” during a phone call with Thune.
While Thune did not confirm to the outlet whether Trump had “asked him to oust MacDonough,” he explained that he would not fire her. Thune explained that the Senate was “going through a process” that they deal with each time they “have a reconciliation bill.”
“We’re going through a process that we go through every time we have a reconciliation bill and the people on both sides are mad at the parliamentarian,” Thune said.
Breitbart News’s Sean Moran reported MacDonough had warned that the plan from the Republicans to give $1 billion in funding for the ballroom “would be subject to a 60-vote threshold if it were to remain in the legislation”:
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advised that the Republican plan to provide $1 billion for President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom would be subject to a 60-vote threshold if it were to remain in the legislation as is.
Republicans are using budgetary reconciliation to fund the ballroom and the Border Patrol as well as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Using reconciliation would allow the funding package to pass through the Senate with only Republican support.
However, there are strict rules by which the legislation must abide by to ensure it does not violate the Senate’s rules on reconciliation.
Semafor also first reported that Trump had called Thune to share his thoughts after MacDonough issued a ruling “that the money couldn’t get a vote under the strict rules of budget reconciliation.”
Republican lawmakers are still continuing efforts to draft language on the security request that complies with the Senate’s Byrd rule and will survive parliamentarian scrutiny.
Read the full article here