Byrd Baths for the Budget Bill
The Senate will now have to find 60 votes to pass some troubling provisions
The Budget Bill
The Senate is currently reviewing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) for provisions that violate the Byrd Rule.1 During this process, if the House or Senate committees attempt to sneak unrelated policy provisions into the budget bill, the Byrd Rule will force them to either remove the provision or muster at least 60 votes to pass it. As I mentioned in my post on Congress, there are 53 Republicans in the Senate; therefore, provisions requiring 60 votes will be difficult to pass.
Good News: In my first post about the budget, I worried about a provision that would make it more difficult for the Supreme Court to hold the administration in contempt of its orders and would render many current and past court orders unenforceable.2 The Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled today that the provision violated the Byrd Rule and will require 60 votes to stay in the budget bill.
To date, the Byrd bath process has identified 32 provisions that violate the Byrd Rule. Some of the more troubling provisions would have allowed the administration to sell millions of acres of public land, close down financial regulators and oversight boards, and eliminate environmental reviews for offshore oil and gas projects.
It is possible for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to ignore the parliamentarian and allow these measures to stay in the bill. Thune has said he wouldn’t do this, but time will tell.
Bad news: The Senate Parliamentarian approved an amended provision on AI Regulation, which will allow it to pass with a simple majority. The original House bill put a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation at the state and local level (including rolling back any laws already on state books). The Senate version removes the moratorium and instead puts millions of dollars in federal broadband funding at risk for states that enact new regulations related to AI. The bottom line for this provision is that states will be strongly discouraged from creating new regulations on AI. Given the GOP and the administration’s stance against such regulation, I expect this will kill any AI governance until the balance of power shifts in Washington.
More provisions are reviewed daily, and we’ll do a weekly update throughout the budget process. Here is the list of provisions that the Parliamentarian has reviewed as of today, along with the outcomes.3
Disallowed: These provisions will now require 60 votes to pass
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Mandates that states cover a portion of SNAP (food stamp) benefits, with the state share escalating with payment error rates.
Removes SNAP eligibility for immigrants who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Extends the suspension of permanent price support authority, which has traditionally been addressed every 5 years in the Farm Bill.
Reduces appropriations to the Department of Defense if spending plans are not submitted on time.
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Eliminates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by cutting its maximum funding to zero.
Cuts $1.4 billion by reducing the pay of Federal Reserve staff.
Cuts $293 million by reducing the Office of Financial Research funding.
Cuts $771 million to eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and transfers its authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
$250 million to Coast Guard stations on South Padre Island, Texas.
$85 million to transfer the Space Shuttle currently on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to a nonprofit in Houston, Texas.
Eliminates environmental review processes for offshore oil and gas projects.
Fast-tracks offshore oil and gas leases.
Permits the construction of Ambler Road, a controversial mining road in Alaska.
Mandates the sale of millions of acres of public land from both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Removes the Secretary of the Interior’s discretion to reduce fees for solar and wind projects on Bureau of Land Management land.
Requires the Secretary of the Interior to hold yearly geothermal lease sales and changes how geothermal royalties are calculated.
Allows natural gas exporters to pay a fee to have their project deemed “in the public interest,” which is a requirement for approval.
Repeals statutory authorizations for Inflation Reduction Act programs and rescinds funds. The repeals of authorizations, but not the rescissions, violate the Byrd Rule.
Repeals EPA’s rule that sets limits on the air pollution emissions of passenger vehicle models manufactured, sold, or operated in the United States.
Allows environmental projects to pay a fee to skip judicial reviews.
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Authorizes states to conduct border security and immigration enforcement.
Removes Civil Service Protections for New Federal Employees.
Imposes a $350 fee for federal employees to file a case with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which protects federal merit systems against partisan politics.
Grants authority to agencies to unilaterally rescind funds appropriated by Congress.
Federal employee unions will be required to pay a quarterly fee for the use of official time and agency resources by labor representatives.
Allows the executive branch to reorganize federal government agencies, which could include the transfer, consolidation, or elimination of whole agencies or functions, immediately and without Congressional oversight.
Mandates the sale of all United States Postal Service electric vehicles and infrastructure to support them.
Prohibits agencies from implementing, administering, or enforcing any rules with budgetary effects that are not explicitly required by statute.
Restrictions on enforcing contempt orders
Limiting grant funding to ‘Sanctuary Cities’
Giving state and local officials the authority to arrest any noncitizen
Limits on federal government payments to compensate victims, remedy harm, and punish and deter future violations.
Allowed: these provisions can pass with a simple majority
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
AI regulation as amended.
Still Under Review as of June 23
Requires oil and gas lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
90% of offshore oil and gas lease revenues in Cook Inlet will go to the state of Alaska.
Requires the Secretary of the Interior to approve new coal lease applications and any additional approvals needed to mine previously issued coal leases within 90 days of receipt.
Named for Senator Robert Byrd, the Byrd Rule allows senators to challenge, and the Senate parliamentarian to review, provisions of budget bills that are not central to the budget process. If the parliamentarian determines that the provision is more about policy than budgetary matters, it will require a 60-vote majority (rather than a simple majority) to pass. This process is called a “Byrd bath.”
Thank you to my source for much of this post: Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley and his frequent reports on the 2025 Byrd Rule process.