Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has previously knocked down Senate Democrats’ Plan A and Plan B immigration proposals in their draft versions of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” spending program.
What MacDonough recommends on the expected Plan C that Senate Democrats are preparing could determine whether America’s borders are opened to millions of new legal immigrants and a new mostly “open borders” immigration system is thus erected for the federal government.
MacDonough—first appointed to the nonpartisan post in 2012 as the first woman ever to hold it—then is in the hot seat because Democrats are pushing the gargantuan Biden spending plan through Congress under its “reconciliation” process. They are doing so because reconciliation proposals need only 51 votes to pass the Senate instead of the usual 60.
With the Senate split 50–50, Democrats must corral all of their caucus members to vote for the plan, the biggest, most comprehensive expansion of the federal government since the New Deal, then have the tie broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.
MacDonough previously knocked down the Democrats’ first and second attempts to gain her positive recommendation for inclusion of multiple immigration provisions that are already in the 2,400+ page House version of reconciliation.
Under the standing rules of the reconciliation process, provisions in reconciliation bills must have an effect on the federal government’s spending and revenues that is more than “merely incidental.”
Changes that are strictly of a policy nature don’t qualify, even though they may affect the budget. That means there’s a gray area between the two absolutes of “merely incidental” and wholesale changes. Democrats hope the third time will be the charm as MacDonough opens the door to some or most of their reform proposals.
What is certain is the huge impact on the United States that will result from enactment of the major Democratic proposals, according to immigration experts interviewed on Oct. 4 by The Epoch Times.
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