On Sunday, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that eight additional provisions of the Big Beautiful Bill cannot pass the Senate without securing 60 votes.
MacDonough continues to review sections of the bill to ensure compliance with Senate rules on budget reconciliation—the process Republicans are using to advance the Big Beautiful Bill through the Senate with a simple majority:
- State and local assistance to conduct border security and immigration enforcement
- Increasing the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) contribution rate for new civil servants if they do not agree to become “at-will” employees
- Imposing a $350 fee for federal employees to file a case with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which adjudicates appeals brought by federal civil servants to protect federal merit systems against partisan political and prohibited personnel practices
- Granting authority to agencies to rescind funds through an incentive program for federal employees to identify unnecessary funds and return it to the Treasury
- Requiring federal agency heads to charge federal employee unions a quartely fees for use of official time and agency resources by labor representatives
- Allows federal agencies to transfer, consolidate, or eliminate whole agencies or functions of agencies
- Mandating the sale of all United States Postal Service electric vehicles
- Changing agency rulemaking by prohibiting agencies from implementing, administering , or enforcing rules with budgetary effects
MacDonough also ruled on Saturday that the Big Beautiful Bill cannot cut funding for sanctuary cities and cannot limit federal courts’ authority to issue preliminary injunctions. And the parliamentarian ruled the legislation cannot zero out funding to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB).
In a Truth Social post last week, President Donald Trump praised Republican unity in working to get the measure passed. “Great unity in the Republican Party, perhaps unity like we have never seen before. Now let’s get the Great, Big, Beautiful Bill done. Our Country is doing GREAT. MAGA!” he wrote.
