Latest news with #ElizabethMacDonough
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate parliamentarian rejects religious college tax carve-out, gun silencer deregulation in GOP megabill
The Senate parliamentarian has rejected a Republican attempt to exempt a small number of religious schools, including Hillsdale College — where many graduates go on to careers in conservative politics —— from an income tax on college endowments. The GOP bill would substantially raise the tax on the returns of wealthy college endowments but it exempted Hillsdale, a Christian liberal arts school in Michigan, which hired a team of lobbyists to avoid getting hit by the tax. Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has also ruled against a section of the bill that removes regulations pertaining to gun silencers and easily concealable firearms under the National Firearms Act. The provisions were tucked into the massive budget reconciliation package Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hopes to pass by July 4. The loosening of restrictions on gun silencers — also known as suppressors — is a top priority of the gun industry and many firearms enthusiasts. The GOP proposal passed by the House would eliminate the $200 Tax Stamp and enhanced background checks required to own a suppressor. 'We have been successful in removing parts of this bill that hurt families and workers, but the process is not over, and Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules,' said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. 'Republicans are actively attempting to rewrite major sections of this bill to advance their families lose, and billionaires win agenda, but Democrats are scrutinizing all changes to ensure the rules of reconciliation are enforced,' he added. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an outspoken proponent of gun-control measures, including expanded background checks for firearms purchases, said eliminating restrictions on suppressors would be a bad idea. 'Silencers aren't illegal in this country, you just have to prove that you're a responsible gun owner and not a criminal who's buying a silencer to commit murder,' Murphy noted. 'The law has worked very well for years and there's no reason to change it.' The parliamentarian struck down several other provisions in the bill, including a section to create a new federal subsidy for private and religious schools and language to create a precertification process for demonstrating eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The provision would require people who claim the credit to obtain certification that their child is eligible. MacDonough released her most recent rulings late Thursday, hours after rejecting a Republican proposal to cap states' use of health care provider taxes to increase their share of federal Medicaid funding. Senate Democrats say the parliamentarian has ruled against proposals in the bill that would have cut federal programs and spending by $250 billion, forcing Republicans to scramble to rewrite major parts of President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
All-Star Panel: Is The 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Facing Its Last Bump In The Road?
Following a series of sweeping cuts from Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' narrowly cleared the Senate — after Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking 51-50 vote. Now, as the bill heads back to the House, where it also only passed by one vote back in May, how will House Republicans react to the slashes made to their original legislation? Will they accept the changes to get the bill on President Trump's desk by the 4th of July, or will it undergo another round of revisions? Chief Political Correspondent for 'The Washington Examiner' Byron York, FOX News Radio Political Analyst Josh Kraushaar, and Democratic Strategist Leslie Marshall join Bret to discuss this, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral primary, and more on today's All-Star Panel. Follow Bret on X: @BretBaier
Time Magazine
01-07-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Threatens Planned Parenthood Funds
The funding Planned Parenthood receives for a variety of reproductive and preventive care services through Medicaid is under threat after the Supreme Court and Senate Parliamentarian both greenlit Republican efforts to strip the women's health organization of funds. The Senate version of President Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' narrowly passed on Tuesday with a provision included that would prohibit federal Medicaid funding for any health care services provided by Planned Parenthood for one year, after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough allowed the cuts to remain in the legislation. The provision initially sought to 'defund' Planned Parenthood for 10 years, but the timing was reduced to one year prior to MacDonough's ruling. The sweeping tax and spending package now returns to the House. The bill's Senate passage comes just days after the Supreme Court ruled that states can prohibit Medicaid funding for any health care services provided by Planned Parenthood, in a case stemming from a 2018 order by South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster that barred any clinic offering abortion services from the state's Medicaid program. Read More: South Carolina Wants to End Medicaid for Planned Parenthood The decisions are major victories for Republican lawmakers in their decades-long effort to strip Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, of government funding. The Hyde Amendment already bars federal dollars from being used for abortion. Medicaid—the state-federal program that provides health insurance coverage for more than 70 million people from low-income households—doesn't cover abortions, with very limited exceptions. But Medicaid covers other, non-abortion health care services that Planned Parenthood clinics provide, and many of the patients who visit the organization's locations are Medicaid recipients. Anti-abortion groups praised the Supreme Court's decision; Katie Daniel, director of legal affairs and policy counsel for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the decision 'saves countless unborn babies from a violent death.' But Planned Parenthood, abortion-rights advocates, and health care providers condemned the court's ruling. Planned Parenthood has said that barring Medicaid coverage for the number of other health care services its clinics provide—such as birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screenings—could lead to many patients not getting the health care they need. 'The Supreme Court once again sided with politicians who believe they know better than you, who want to block you from seeing your trusted health care provider and making your own health care decisions,' Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. 'Patients need access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more. And right now, lawmakers in Congress are trying to 'defund' Planned Parenthood as part of their long-term goal to shut down Planned Parenthood and ban abortion nationwide.' The provision targeting Planned Parenthood in Trump's tax and spending package would cost taxpayers an additional $52 million over 10 years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Planned Parenthood has said that if it is 'defunded,' nearly 200 health centers in 24 states would be at risk of closing and more than 1.1 million patients could lose access to their health care. Lawmakers and anti-abortion groups that have pushed to 'defund' Planned Parenthood have argued that patients can turn to federally qualified health centers instead of the women's health organization. But a recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, which researches and supports sexual and reproductive health and rights, concluded that federally qualified health centers wouldn't be able to readily replace Planned Parenthood's provider network. Abortion-rights advocates sounded the alarm on Tuesday, after the tax and spending package cleared the Senate with the provision targeting Planned Parenthood. 'If this bill passes, it will be the most devastating blow to women's health and bodily autonomy since the overturning of Roe,' Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. 'What we are seeing is a full-scale attack against the complete range of care that these clinics provide—abortion care, yes, but also so much more.' 'If this bill passes, many people will have nowhere else affordable to go for these services,' Northup continued. 'The U.S. health care system is already stretched thin—the majority in Congress should not be further limiting where people can get health care. Patients should have the freedom to pick their health care provider.'
Politico
01-07-2025
- Business
- Politico
The CFPB's megabill moment
Presented by Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. Quick Fix Republicans are nearing their biggest win ever in a years-long push to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But on the left, supporters of the CFPB are warning that the impact of Republicans' plan to cut the agency's funding as part of their 'big, beautiful bill' extends well beyond the consumer bureau — and some are already plotting how to use the move against the GOP in the future. The Senate's megabill would cut the funding the CFPB has access to nearly in half by putting a new, lower cap on the amount of money the agency can get from the Federal Reserve, which provides the bureau's dollars. CFPB supporters are warning that the novel legislative approach — which would lower the agency's funding cap from 12 percent of the Fed's operating budget to 6.5 percent — could backfire on Republicans if a future Democratic Congress uses the same move to expand the bureau's work. 'I have no reason to doubt that when Democrats take back unified control of Washington, you're not going to see Democrats simply go back to the original Dodd-Frank 12 percent cap for the CFPB,' said Seth Frotman, a former official at the consumer bureau who now serves as a senior fellow at the legal nonprofit Towards Justice. 'And they could decide to take another 10 percent and drive that money to the FTC or the DOJ antitrust division.' The upper chamber's CFPB proposal was OK'd by the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who is responsible for advising which plans are eligible for the filibuster-skirting budget-reconciliation process that Republicans are using to pass their megabill without Democratic votes. Though she rejected an earlier plan to zero out the agency's funding entirely, MacDonough's ruling on the language has sparked concern by former agency officials that future reconciliation bills could also target other independent regulators. 'Any funding mechanism now can be revised by any future Congress,' said Diane Thompson, a former senior adviser to Biden-era CFPB Director Rohit Chopra who now works for the National Consumer Law Center. 'That's absolutely opening a Pandora's box in ways that aren't just about Republicans vs. Democrats, but are about generally creating instability.' Republicans say slashing the CFPB is worth pursuing irrespective of concerns about what Democrats might do in the future. 'I don't generally buy this argument that we shouldn't do it because it may cause escalation or the Democrats will do it back,' said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who sits on the Senate Banking Committee. 'I live on planet Earth. The escalation's already started, and has been for some time.' Sen. Mike Rounds, a senior Banking panel Republican from South Dakota, said the move 'doesn't restrict [Democrats], nor does it push them.' 'If they could figure out a way to expand it, they probably would anyway,' he said. 'In this case, we think it's the right thing to do.' Democrats are also already seeking to weaponize the CFPB cut as part of their broader messaging about the GOP megabill. Republicans blocked an amendment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday that would strip the CFPB language from the bill, forcing lawmakers to go on the record about the issue specifically. Democrats hope the move will prove to be unpopular. 'When this financial cop can't do its job, there's no one else in the entire federal government to pick up the slack,' Warren said on the Senate floor. IT'S TUESDAY — What are you watching for in the eleventh-hour megabill talks? Let me know at jgoodman@ As always, send MM tips and pitches to Sam at ssutton@ Driving the day Fed Chair Jerome Powell participates in a policy panel before the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking 2025 in Sintra, Portugal, at 9:30 a.m. … The Labor Department will release the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) at 10 a.m. … The ISM Manufacturing Index is out at 10 a.m. … Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), American Enterprise Institute President Robert Doar, Brookings Institution president Cecilia Elena Rouse and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu speak at 1:30 p.m. at the launch of 'America's Rural Future: Announcing the Brookings-AEI Commission on U.S. Rural Prosperity.' Where the megabill goes from here — Senators voted late into the night Monday as Republican leaders plowed ahead with their push to get the 'big, beautiful bill' to President Donald Trump's desk by July 4. Several hurdles remain — with the biggest ones lurking in the GOP-controlled House. As our Benjamin Guggenheim reports, House fiscal hawks are looking at the math underlying Senate Republicans' plan, and they don't like what they see. As Senate Republicans try to muscle President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' for final passage, they're on track to violate a budget framework brokered between House fiscal hawks and Speaker Mike Johnson. Under that framework, if the GOP piles on tax cuts over $4 trillion, they'd need to match them dollar-for-dollar with additional spending cuts beyond the $1.5 trillion in the House-passed bill. —Another potential holdup in the lower chamber appeared on track to be resolved late Monday when Sen. Marsha Blackburn pulled her support for a five-year deal on a moratorium against state and local artificial intelligence laws that she struck with Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz just one day earlier. —A revised plan by Senate Republicans to impose a new 1 percent tax on remittances is now projected to bring in a lot more money to the Treasury even though lawmakers have slashed the rate, our Brian Faler reports. Republicans are dropping plans to shield U.S. citizens from the tax on money sent overseas, which had been aimed squarely at undocumented immigrants. Trade Soon? — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump will meet with his trade advisers to set tariff rates on countries that he thinks are not on track to reach trade deals with the United States by next week's deadline, Doug Palmer reports. Unintended consequences — The president's tariff policies are prompting some companies to move certain operations overseas, particularly if their manufacturing processes require more than one trip across the border. 'Is that crazy, or what?' the CEO of one such company, Cocona Labs, told The NYT's Peter Goodman. Wall Street And what a ride it's been — Nearly three months after Trump's Liberation Day tariff announcements sparked a massive sell-off in stocks, the S&P 500 closed Monday's trading session at an all-time high, per Bloomberg's Rita Nazareth. The Nasdaq also closed at a record, representing its best quarter in five years, according to The WSJ. Watch this space — Declan Harty reports that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether activist investors can challenge certain decisions by investment fund managers under an 85-year-old law. Crypto The view from Europe — European lawmakers are warning that Brussels' liberal approach to regulating stablecoins could cause a cash crisis, our Giovanna Faggionato reports from Brussels. In a letter to the Commission, seen by POLITICO, the Greens' Rasmus Andresen, Eero Heinäluoma of the Socialists and Democrats and Johan Van Overtveldt from the center-right European Conservatives and Reformists said the refusal of the EU executive to ring-fence stablecoins issued within the bloc from those issued overseas could lead to a run on the continent's banks. Jobs report Melissa Neuman is now chief of the Treasury branch at OMB. She most recently was acting Treasury branch chief. — Daniel Lippman
The Hill
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
GOP leaders looking to expand enhanced Medicaid matching rate to woo Murkowski
Senate Republican leaders are discussing a proposal to expand an enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) matching rate to five states, including Alaska and Hawaii, to get the parliamentarian to sign off the proposal, which could be critical to locking down Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) vote. GOP negotiators are floating a plan to expand the enhanced FMAP rate to North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — in addition to Hawaii and Alaska — and recalculating the formula for higher federal assistance so that it is based on states' population density, according to a Senate source briefed on the discussion. Negotiators hope that by reworking the proposal it can pass muster with Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. If the proposal is accepted, it could provide as much as an additional $3 billion in Medicaid funds to Alaska. The parliamentarian on Sunday rejected a section of the bill to provide for an enhanced federal matching rate for two states with the highest separate poverty guidelines: Alaska and Hawaii. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who has pushed to rework the FMAP formula for his state, says that current FMAP rates aren't fair to Alaska. 'The way in which the FMAP is calculated doesn't make any sense. It's a pure per-capita-income formula. That's it. So if your state has a high per-capita income, you have a very low FMAP, even if you have a super high costs of living, even if you have super duper high costs of health care delivery — which we have the highest in the country — none of that is reflected in the FMAP formulas,' Sullivan told The Hill. 'I've been working this one for 10 years.' The idea of further boosting federal Medicaid payments in some states may not sit well with conservatives such as Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who are pushing an amendment to find more Medicaid savings. Republican leaders have also presented arguments to the Senate parliamentarian to grant Alaska and Hawaii waivers for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cost-sharing requirements if they show progress in reducing error rates in delivering food assistance.
