(C) Common Dreams
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A Running List of Policies Rejected From the Republican Megabill [1]
['Alicia Parlapiano']
Date: 2025-06-24
A Running List of Policies Rejected From the Republican Megabill
The parliamentarian made several rejections related to student aid and health coverage that were announced Thursday, including a key Medicaid provision on provider taxes.
The bill carrying much of President Trump’s domestic agenda is facing examination by the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan official who enforces the chamber’s complex rules — and who can effectively strip out parts of the bill that don’t comply.
Republicans will be able to push the tax and entitlement package through with a simple Senate majority, avoiding a Democratic filibuster, as long as it complies with the “Byrd Rule,” which has governed the budget reconciliation process they are using since the 1980s. Under the rule, each of the bill’s provisions:
Must produce a non-incidental change to the federal budget. In other words, it must primarily be a change to spending or revenue. Provisions with no or minimal budgetary impact, or that are mostly there for policy reasons, are supposed to be struck, but the decision can be subjective.
May not increase the deficit outside of the budget window. In this case, provisions can’t add to deficits past 2034.
May not make changes to Social Security.
The process of review is known informally in the Senate as the “Byrd bath.” So far, the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has determined that dozens of provisions do not pass muster to be included in the megabill, in most cases because they represent policy changes with only incidental effects on the budget.
Republican committee leaders have said they plan to rewrite some of the struck provisions to make them compliant.
Rejected provisions
Most of the struck provisions would have had a small effect on the bill’s bottom line, but there are a handful that would have saved hundreds of billions of dollars as written. Some provisions were policy priorities for some Republicans, and their removal could make those lawmakers less enthusiastic about supporting the bill. What is likely to be the most consequential ruling, on whether Republicans may use a budget maneuver to exclude the cost of tax cut extensions, is still outstanding.
We’ve highlighted instances where Republicans have said they have made or are working on adjustments to the offending portions.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/24/upshot/reconciliation-byrd-bath.html
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