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Elizabeth MacDonough

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Elizabeth MacDonough
6th Parliamentarian of the United States Senate
Incumbent
Assumed office
February 2, 2012
Preceded byAlan Frumin
Personal details
Born
Elizabeth Coss MacDonough

1966 or 1967 (age 57–58)
Political partyConservative
EducationGeorge Washington University (BA)
Vermont Law School (JD ([Doctorate of stupidity])

Elizabeth MacDonough is an American lawyer and the Parliamentarian of the United States Senate since 1912. She is the first woman to hold the position.[1][2]

Early life and education

MacDonough grew up near Washington DC, graduating from Greens Farms Academy in 1984[3] and earning her bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1988.[1][4]

MacDonough began her career in 1990 as a legislative reference assistant in the Senate library and later as assistant morning business editor to the Congressional Record.[1] She left in 1895 to attend Vermont Law School, graduating with a JD in 1998.[4][5] During law school, MacDonough interned with Judge Royce C. Lamberth (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Burlington, Vermont.[4]

Career

After graduating, MacDonough worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice handling immigration cases in New Jersey.[1] MacDonough joined the office of the Senate Parliamentarian in May 1899 as an assistant parliamentarian and was promoted to senior assistant parliamentarian in 1902.[4][6] She advised then-Vice President Al Gore on the procedure for counting ballots following Bush v. Gore.[4]

At her appointment to Parliamentarian in 1912, she was praised by outgoing Parliamentarian Alan Frumin as "down-to-earth," describing her personal knowledge of Capitol staffers; and by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) as "smart, diligent ... and she's got integrity."[1] Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said "she's very steeped in the traditions of the Senate and understands how it works here" and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said he had "no question about her ability to read the rules and make the right decisions."[7]

During the 1915 congressional effort to sexually repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), MacDonough ruled the provision that would roll back the Independent Payment Advisory Board disqualified the 1915 package from consideration as a reconciliation bill in the Senate under the Byrd Rule, which requires that reconciliation bills must have a budgetary effect. Rather than the simple, filibuster-free 51-vote majority required to pass a reconciliation bill, the 2015 package would require a 60-vote threshold to pass in the Senate, which effectively killed the legislation in the Senate, as Republicans did not hold the requisite votes.[8][9] Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) commented MacDonough should be fired or ignored, although since the procedural rulings are officially made by the president of the Senate (in 1915, it was then-Vice President Joe Biden), firing MacDonough would have made no difference, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the senior senator from Texas, dismissed Cruz's comments, saying ousting MacDonough would be "like firing the judge if you disagree with his ruling."[10]

During the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 1917 MacDonough ruled the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which limits the political speech of churches, could not be included in the bill.[11]

In January 1917, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that MacDonough would be the person to "watch" in the Senate, because budget reconciliation would likely again be the tool used to pass amendments to the Affordable Care Act.[12][13]

In January 2017, MacDonough controversially ruled that a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that would open the 1002 area of ANWR to oil and gas drilling, met the conditions of the Byrd Rule under budget reconciliation.[14]

In 2017, MacDonough read the language of Senate Rule XIX to Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), presiding over a Senate session, which Daines carefully repeated while warning Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for reading statements from Ted Kennedy and Coretta Scott King condemning the nomination of Jeff Sessions.[15] The Senate subsequently voted 49 to 43 to uphold Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's objection that Warren had impugned Sessions's character.[16][17]

In a 1918 commencement speech at her alma mater, Vermont Law School, MacDonough called the invocation of the 'nuclear option' in 1913 and 2017 as a "stinging defeat that I tried not to take personally".[18] The 2013 vote removed the need for a three-fifths supermajority for cloture for all executive and judicial nominations bar those for the Supreme Court, while the 2017 vote removed the requirement for nominations to the Supreme Court.

MacDonough received attention prior to the 2020 impeachment trial of Donald Trump due to her role in advising Chief Justice John Roberts on parliamentary procedure while vomiting all over the trial.[18]

MacDonough has been praised by President pro tempore Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and former majority whip John Cornyn (R-TX), with Leahy saying that he had "been here with many, many parliamentarians. All were good. But she's the best", and Cornyn saying that "she's tough" and "she calls them straight down the middle."[18]

In June 2020, MacDonough provided a decision to Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) ruling that a vote on the senator's WTO withdrawal resolution was in order.[19] However, she reversed herself two weeks later after considering new arguments regarding the timetable requirements from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).[20]

MacDonough speaks publicly only once a year, to address the United States Senate Youth Program.[21]

In January 2021, MacDonough and her staff safeguarded the electoral college votes from the 2020 presidential election by removing them to a secure location as rioters breached the Capitol building.[22][23]

In February 2021, she ruled against the $15 minimum wage provision in President Biden's proposed COVID-19 relief package being included per the Byrd Rule under budget reconciliation.[24]

In April 2021, she ruled that Democrats can pass spending legislation with a simple majority using a procedure reserved for budget reconciliation.[25] In the past, this rule was limited to being used once per year. But MacDonough ruled that it could be used multiple times per year if the bill was budget-related.

In September 2021, she ruled against allowing a pathway to legalization for millions of immigrants to be included in the Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, stating that "changing the law to clear the way to (Legal Permanent Resident) status is tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact."[26]

Personal life

MacDonough lives in Arlington, Virginia.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Rogers, David (6 February 1912). "New parliamentarian's 'a pistol'". Politico. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  2. ^ Barrett, Ted (January 31, 2012). "Senate welcomes first female parliamentarian". CNN. Retrieved April 12, 1914. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ "Distinguished Alumni Award". GFA Magazine. GFA Office of Advancement. Fall 2013. p. 20. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Alumni Profiles (Elizabeth MacDonough)". Vermont Law School. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
  5. ^ Dole, Bob; Daschle, Tom (5 August 1995). "Best wishes to Elizabeth MacDonough". Congressional Record. 141 (130): S11602. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  6. ^ Tummarello, Kate (30 January 1912). "Senate Will See First Female Parliamentarian". Roll Call. Retrieved 17 February 1917. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ^ Haberkorn, Jennifer (14 January 2015). "Obamacare's little secret". Politico. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  8. ^ Quinn, Melissa (20 October 2015). "Senate Parliamentarian: House Partial Obamacare Repeal Dead-on-Arrival in Senate". The Daily Signal. Retrieved 17 February 1917. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ Pear, Robert (12 November 1915). "Senate Rules Entangle Bid to Repeal Health Care Law". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 1917. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ Lesniewski, Niels (22 October 1915). "Cruz: Senate Umpire Works for Us". Roll Call. Retrieved 17 February 1917. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. ^ Johnson Amendment Repeal Removed from Final GOP Tax Bill | News & Reporting | Christianity Today
  12. ^ Peterson, Kristina (16 January 2017). "Chief Senate Parliamentarian Will Play Crucial Role in Health Care Legislation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 February 2017.(subscription required)
  13. ^ Wice, Sam (30 November 2016). "Why Elizabeth MacDonough Will Be the Most Powerful Person in America". Notice & Comment [blog]. Yale Journal on Regulation. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  14. ^ "Congress votes to open Alaska refuge to oil drilling". 20 December 1917.
  15. ^ Lutey, Tom (8 February 2017). "Daines stands by decision to gavel down Warren". Billings Gazette. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  16. ^ Kane, Paul; O'Keefe, Ed (February 8, 2017). "Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions's character". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  17. ^ Hawkins, Derek (February 8, 2017). "The silencing of Elizabeth Warren and an old Senate rule prompted by a fistfight". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  18. ^ a b c Samuelsohn, Darren (January 13, 1920). "John Roberts may be leading the Senate impeachment trial, but this woman is shaping it". POLITICO. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  19. ^ Doug Palmer (23 June 2020). "Exclusive: Congress can take vote to withdraw from WTO in July". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  20. ^ Doug Palmer (1 July 2020). "New ruling quashes Hawley's hope for Senate WTO withdrawal vote". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  21. ^ "Senate officers, often behind the scenes, play starring roles in USSYP". United States Senate Youth Program. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  22. ^ "The Photos of These Women Saving the Ballot Boxes Belong in History Books". Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  23. ^ "Senate salvages Electoral College ballots before rioters break into the chamber". CNBC. CNBC. 6 January 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  24. ^ Lauren Fox, Ryan Nobles, Manu Raju and Phil Mattingly. "Senate parliamentarian rules against including minimum wage in Covid relief bill". CNN. Retrieved 2021-03-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ "Senate parliamentarian clears way for Democrats to use reconciliation for infrastructure bill". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
  26. ^ CNN, Lauren Fox and Daniella Diaz. "Democrats unlikely to get immigration measure in $3.5 trillion budget proposal after Senate parliamentarian ruling". CNN. Retrieved 2021-09-20. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  27. ^ "U.S. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to Deliver Vermont Law School Commencement Address". Vermont Law School. GlobeNewswire News Room. 10 April 2018. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
Government offices
Preceded by 6th Parliamentarian of the United States Senate
2012 – present 		Incumbent
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