Parliamentarian rebuffs Dems’ bill
Restricts provision added to domestic programs legislation
WASHINGTON – Democrats can’t use their $3.5 trillion package bolstering social and climate programs for their plan to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens, the Senate’s parliamentarian said, a crushing blow to what was the party’s clearest pathway in years to attaining that longsought goal.
The decision by Elizabeth Macdonough, the Senate’s nonpartisan interpreter of its often enigmatic rules, is a damaging and disheartening setback for President Joe Biden, congressional Democrats and their allies in the proimmigration and progressive communities. Though they said they’d offer her fresh alternatives, Macdonough’s stance badly wounds their hopes of unilaterally enacting – over Republican opposition – changes letting several categories of immigrants gain permanent residence and possibly citizenship.
The parliamentarian opinion that emerged Sunday is crucial because it means the immigration provisions could not be included in an immense $3.5 trillion measure that’s been shielded from GOP filibusters. Left vulnerable to those bill-killing delays, which require 60 Senate votes to defuse, the immigration language has virtually no chance in the 50-50 Senate.
In a three-page memo to senators obtained by The Associated Press, Macdonough noted that under Senate rules, provisions are not allowed in such bills if their budget effect is “merely incidental” to their overall policy impact.
The rejected provisions would open
multiyear doorways to legal permanent residence – and perhaps citizenship – for young immigrants brought illegally to the country as children, often called “Dreamers.” Also included would be immigrants with Temporary Protected Status who’ve fled countries stricken by natural disasters or extreme violence, essential workers and farm workers.
Estimates vary because many people can be in more than one category, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says 8 million people would be helped by the Democratic effort, Macdonough said. Biden had originally proposed a broader drive that would have affected 11 million immigrants.
“We are deeply disappointed in this decision but the fight to provide lawful status for immigrants in budget reconciliation continues,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in a written statement. “Senate Democrats have prepared alternate proposals and will be holding additional meetings with the Senate parliamentarian in the coming days.”
The parliamentarian’s ruling was riling progressives at a time when Democratic leaders will need virtually every vote in Congress from their party to approve a 10-year, $3.5 trillion bill that embodies Biden’s top domestic goals.
It also comes with Republicans already signaling that they will use immigration as a top issue in next year’s campaigns for control of the House and Senate. The issue has gained attention in a year when huge numbers of immigrants have been encountered trying to cross the Southwest border.
“It would have led to an increased run on the border – beyond the chaos we already have there today,” said the Senate Budget Committee’s top Republican, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
One alternative advocates have said they’re exploring would be to update a “registry” date that allows some immigrants in the U.S. by that time to become permanent residents if they meet certain conditions. But it was unclear if they would pursue that option or how the parliamentarian would rule.
White House spokesperson Vedant Patel called the parliamentarian’s decision disappointing but said senators would offer new immigration ideas.
Macdonough cited a CBO estimate that Democrats’ proposals would increase federal deficits by $140 billion over the coming decade. That is largely because of federal benefits the immigrants would qualify for.
But that fiscal impact, wrote Macdonough, was overshadowed by improvements the Democratic effort would make for immigrants’ lives.
“Many undocumented persons live and work in the shadows of our society out of fear of deportation,” she said.
Permanent legal status would grant them “freedom to work, freedom to travel, freedom to live openly in our society in any state in the nation, and to reunite with their families and it would make them eligible, in time, to apply for citizenship – things for which there is no federal fiscal equivalent.”
That, she wrote, “is tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact.”
Democrats and a handful of GOP allies have made halting progress during the past two decades toward legislation that would help millions of immigrants gain permanent legal status in the U.S. Ultimately, they’ve been thwarted each time by broad Republican opposition.
The House has approved separate bills this year achieving much of that, but the measures have gone nowhere in the Senate because of Republican filibusters.
The overall $3.5 trillion bill would boost spending for social safety net, environment and other programs and largely finance the initiatives with tax increases on the rich and corporations.
Progressive and moderate Democrats are battling over the measure’s price tag and details. Party leaders can’t lose any Democratic votes in the 50-50 Senate and can lose no more than three in the House.
Macdonough was appointed in 2012 when Democrats controlled the chamber and is respected as an evenhanded arbiter of Senate rules.
Earlier this year, one of her rulings forced Democrats to remove a minimum wage increase from a COVID-19 relief bill, killing another top progressive priority.