Senate Rules Didn’t Dash Dems’ Mass Amnesty, They Did (But Amnesty Might Still Survive)

The Senate's parliamentarian appeared to dash Democrats' mass amnesty dreams Sunday, issuing an opinion that the rules for a budget reconciliation bill - a privileged legislative vehicle that can be passed with a simple majority - don't encompass providing permanent legal status to millions of illegal migrants.

The Votes The office of the Senate's parliamentarian generally flies under the radar.

Rather than reveal that to their voters in the form of an actual vote and putting vulnerable Democratic senators in the uncomfortable position of actually voting for controversial measures in public, it's far easier to feign helplessness and blame MacDonough.

"Our hands are tied!" Republicans pleaded the same impotency to conservative members and their voters in 2017, claiming the parliamentarian wouldn't let them use an Obamacare repeal attempt to stop federal subsidies from going toward buying plans that pay for abortion or to cut Planned Parenthood funding for even a single year.

Democrats' Go-Around The most recent plan the parliamentarian turned down would have given green cards to children whose parents brought them here, refugees the United States granted temporary legal residency to, and farm workers, as well as those called "Essential." The sweeping change would grant permanent status to an estimated 8 million people at a cost estimated at $140 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The parliamentarian does have a role here, and that is to give her best interpretation of the Senate's rules and precedents as they apply in various parliamentary scenarios.

The Senate parliamentarian's decision specifically cited the rule's demand that reconciliation bills "Not produce a change in outlays or revenues." The bill and its associated cost, MacDonough said, are "By any standard a broad, new immigration policy," and constituted "a policy change that substantially outweighs the budgetary impact of that change." So what's next? Some options Democrats have include federal benefits for illegal immigrants with a "Sunset" of, say, a decade.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/20/senate-rules-didnt-dash-dems-mass-amnesty-they-did-but-amnesty-might-still-survive/