INTERNACIONAL
Senate parliamentarian: Who is the unelected official getting say on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill?’
Marjorie Taylor Greene rules out Senate run
Bluestack Strategies founder Maura Gillespie joins ‘The Fox Report’ to break down Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, R-Ga., announcement that she will not pursue a Senate run, and what it means for her political future.
House and Senate Republicans have been working for months on a sweeping piece of legislation addressing a litany of President Donald Trump’s agenda items.
Such a bill is possible via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass broad policy overhauls while totally sidelining the minority. It lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, lining it up with the House’s simple majority rules.
However, one of the caveats is that the measures tucked into the bill must deal with taxes, spending or the national debt. One key person gets the final say over what is relevant to that sphere – the Senate parliamentarian.
The parliamentarian, who heads the Senate’s parliamentarian office, is a nonpartisan, unelected role appointed by the Senate majority leader. It does not have a fixed term.
ANTI-ABORTION PROVIDER MEASURE IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ COULD SPARK HOUSE GOP REBELLION
Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough will be advising Senate Republicans on President Donald Trump’s «big, beautiful bill.» (Getty Images/Reuters)
The person’s role is to advise the Senate and its staff on the chamber’s rules and precedent. The normally low-profile role has been thrust into the spotlight several times in congressional history, however, particularly surrounding reconciliation.
«At the end of the day, it really is a judgment call. And sometimes you’re making a judgment call where you’re relying on similar situations or maybe analogous situations where we dealt with reconciliation in the past, maybe other times you’re dealing with a completely novel issue, and you’re having to figure it out,» one former senior Senate aide described to Fox News Digital.
«Or maybe, and this happens a lot, people are trying get things through, debating or citing past provisions of previous reconciliation bills…saying ‘Hey, this provision is very similar, and this got through.’»
The Senate parliamentarian leads the «Byrd bath,» a key part of the reconciliation process where the legislation is carefully examined, and any measures found not relevant to the contours of reconciliation are stripped out.
Notably, progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called for the firing of the Senate parliamentarian in 2021 when she forced Senate Democrats to scuttle their $15 per hour minimum wage effort from their reconciliation bill at the time.
That same parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed by the late former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is still serving today and has largely garnered bipartisan respect for her handling of the role.
Congressional Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process. (Fox News Digital)
MacDonough, appointed in 2012, is the first woman in the job. She was a part of the parliamentarian’s office before that and briefly served as an attorney in the Department of Justice, according to NPR.
«I would say that this particular parliamentarian sees herself more as, almost an administrative law judge, and I think that she has generally viewed some of the things that the Senate has been allowed to get away with in reconciliation as a departure from precedent,» said Paul Winfree, president of the Economic Policy Innovation Center and a former Senate Budget Committee staffer himself, told Fox News Digital.
«I think that she has more of a ‘small-c’ conservative approach to what is allowable. At the same time, a lot of what is considered to be allowable under reconciliation is dependent on estimates that are produced by the Congressional Budget Office or the joint tax committee.»
When asked if any of the current public reconciliation plans could face issues with the parliamentarian, both people who spoke with Fox News Digital floated an accounting maneuver that would largely obscure the cost of permanently extending Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
That scoring method, known as current policy baseline, would zero out the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts by measuring it as an extension of the current economic conditions, rather than factoring in how much less the government is taking in via tax revenues with the cuts in effect.
Senate Republicans have signaled they believe they have the legal basis for moving forward with that calculation, however, without the parliamentarian’s say.
«We think the law is very clear, and ultimately the budget committee chairman makes that determination,» Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters last month.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS RELEASE TAX PLAN FOR TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’
Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune said Republicans can use the current policy baseline for scoring tax cuts. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The Senate GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital said, «If that were to have fallen out or just, you didn’t know what was going to happen, that would just affect so many provisions in the bill.»
«Because all of a sudden, you know, all these things start scoring [as an increase to the deficit]…and things become more problematic with your instructions,» the former aide said.
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Winfree, however, said Republicans have appeared to be mindful overall with how they have written the text so far.
«They’ve actually been pretty conservative in how they’ve approached the language,» he said.
He said it was «possible some of the immigration provisions could get a second look,» but that even then, he believed it would «ultimately be okay.»
Republican leaders have said they hope to have a bill on Trump’s desk by Fourth of July.
Fox News Digital reached out to the current Senate Majority Leader’s office for comment.
Senate,Donald Trump,Republicans,Politics
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Merkley nearly breaks Booker’s filibuster record, wins his praise for fighting ‘Trump’s authoritarian tactics’
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Democrats pulled out all the stops on Wednesday to delay the vote on a short-term spending bill to reopen the government — the 12th time the Senate has considered the measure since the government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., embarked on a nearly 24-hour speech at 6:23 p.m. on Tuesday, concluding his remarks at 5:00 p.m. the next day. Merkley, 68, warned viewers of the authoritarianism he said had become a facet of the Trump administration.
«Be aware and worried about the possibility of the use of an emergency in order to expand authoritarian power. That’s the position we’re in now in the United States of America. Authoritarianism with a rubber-stamp Congress, a court that’s delivering more and more power to the executive and an executive who has a well-planned strategy,» Merkley said in his remarks.
JOHNSON WARNS US ‘BARRELING TOWARD ONE OF THE LONGEST SHUTDOWNS’ IN HISTORY
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks to reporters following a weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 19, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
«Republicans have shut down the government to continue the strategy of slashing Americans’ healthcare,» he said.
His speech comes as lawmakers remain gridlocked over federal funding for 2026. Whereas Republicans in the House of Representatives have passed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21, Democrats in the Senate have voted a dozen times to defeat the package.
The Senate once again failed to advance the package on Wednesday. It failed in a 54-46 vote.
Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have demanded an extension of COVID-era supplemental funding for Obamacare healthcare subsidies that are set to sunset in 2025.
SCREAMING MATCH ERUPTS BETWEEN HAKEEM JEFFRIES, MIKE LAWLER AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CHAOS CONTINUES
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, update reporters following their face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders on the government funding crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Republicans need the support of seven Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. The GOP holds 53 seats in the chamber.
Merkley, who came close to breaking Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hour and 4-minute record that was set earlier this year, put the shutdown blame on Republicans throughout his discourse.
Booker praised Merkley’s stalling efforts online.
«Listening to Senator Jeff Merkley for over 22 hours, it is clear that we need to stand up for our democracy. We must continue to call out and counter Trump’s authoritarian tactics. Thank you, Jeff!» Booker said in a post on X.
BOOKER CONCLUDES RECORD 25-HOUR SPEECH AGAINST TRUMP, MUSK, MARKING THE LONGEST EVER ON THE SENATE FLOOR
On the issue of authoritarianism, which comprised the bulk of Merkley’s remarks, Merkley decried what he saw as the Trump administration’s attempts to push the limits on executive power — like its deployment of the National Guard to urban areas.
«If you remove a clear standard as to whether there is a rebellion and just say a president can deploy the military on a whim in places he doesn’t like against peaceful protesters to distract Americans or to exercise a suppression of dissent, then you have flung the doors open to tyranny. To a strongman state,» Merkley said.
National Guard members began patrolling Memphis in October as part of a federal task force established by President Donald Trump to combat what the administration says is violent crime in the city. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
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President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland, Oregon, citing a need to protect law enforcement and government operations in those cities.
politics,congress,senate
INTERNACIONAL
Escándalo en Italia por un posteo de Trump que dice que Meloni busca negociar un acuerdo secreto con EE.UU.
Un video que reposteó el presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, desató una tormenta política en Italia. El material asegura que la primera ministra Giorgia Meloni decidió romper con la Unión Europa y busca negociar un acuerdo comercial directo con Washington y sugirió además un recorte en el apoyo italiano a Ucrania.
“Giorgia Meloni desafía la UE y trata de obtener un acuerdo comercial directo con Trump. Bien hecho Meloni. Es una movida brillante”, comentó la activista ultraconservadora, Lynne Patton, autora del video que compartió Trump.
Leé también: Así fue el ingreso de Sarkozy a la cárcel: la despedida de Carla Bruni y el deseo de llevar dos libros El posteo que Trump publicó en sus redes y generó una fuerte polémica en Italia. (Foto: captura de X).
La oposición exige una respuesta urgente
Desde el primer momento, la oposición italiana salió al cruce y pidió una desmentida oficial. Francesco Boccia, presidente de los senadores del Partido Democrático (PD), y Piero De Luca calificaron la situación de “gravedad inaudita” y reclamaron que Meloni aclare su postura.
En la misma línea, Luana Zanella de Alianza Verde y Sinistra (Avs) expresó: “Esperamos que el miércoles la premier dé explicaciones en el Parlamento”. Por su parte, el vicepresidente de Italia Viva, Enrico Borghi, fue tajante: “Mientras en Italia se denuncia un video falso hecho con inteligencia artificial contra Donzelli, Trump publica un informe periodístico con supuestas declaraciones falsas de Meloni. La premier debe desmentir de inmediato al presidente de Estados Unidos. Si no lo hace, debemos asumir que el Gobierno quiere recortar la ayuda a Kiev y negociar unilateralmente los aranceles, pasando por encima de la UE. Sería gravísimo”.
Borghi fue más allá y advirtió: “Cada vez está más claro que Washington está usando a Palacio de Chigi como palanca para romper la unidad europea”.
El Gobierno italiano salió a desmentir
Ante la presión, el gobierno de Meloni emitió un comunicado para desactivar la crisis: «Las negociaciones comerciales, como es sabido, son competencia exclusiva de la Unión Europea y están lideradas por la Comisión Europea“.
Sin embargo, reconocieron que “desde hace tiempo existe un diálogo bilateral que acompaña la acción de la Comisión sobre los aranceles antidumping propuestos por el Departamento de Comercio de Estados Unidos contra algunos productores italianos de pasta”, indicó el Corriere della Sera.
Leé también: El video del robo en el Louvre: un turista filmó a uno de los ladrones cuando rompía una vitrina con las joyas
El vínculo Meloni-Trump y la aclaración oficialista
El diputado de Fratelli d’Italia y presidente de la Comisión de Finanzas de la Cámara, Marco Osnato, también se refirió al tema en una entrevista radial: «La relación entre Giorgia Meloni y Donald Trump es de colaboración muy estrecha. Por las palabras de Trump se entiende que considera a Meloni una socia confiable e importante, pero quiero aclarar que la misma buena relación se dio también con Biden. Nadie en Italia se casó con Trump ni es trumpista de la primera o la segunda hora».
Trump elogió la belleza de Meloni en la cumbre de Gaza. (Foto: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett).
El polémico piropo de Trump a Meloni
La semana pasada, Trump elogió la belleza de la primera ministra italiana, única mujer entre los dirigentes presentes en la cumbre de Gaza en Egipto.
“No tengo derecho a decirlo, porque habitualmente puede significar el fin de la carrera política si uno lo dice, pero ella es una mujer bella”, dijo en su discurso el mandatario estadounidense que copresidió la conferencia cuyo objetivo era garantizar el acuerdo entre Israel y Hamas para poner fin a la guerra en Gaza.
Trump dudó y luego dijo: “Me arriesgo”, buscando la mirada de Meloni.
“¿Dónde está? ¿No le molesta si digo que es bella? Porque es cierto”, afirmó el mandatario de 79 años, que se casó tres veces.
“Ella es muy respetada en Italia. Es una política muy exitosa”, añadió Trump. De pie justo detrás de él, la jefa de Gobierno se limitó a sonreír.
Donald Trump, Giorgia Meloni
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The U.S. government is aware of the kidnapping of an American Christian missionary in the West African nation of Niger, U.S. official sources told Fox News.
The sources told Fox News that they suspect that the missionary has been taken north to Islamic State-controlled areas where an offshoot of ISIS operates.
«We are aware of reports of the kidnapping of a U.S. citizen in Niamey, Niger,» a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News. «Since we were alerted of the situation, our Embassy officials have been working with local authorities. It is a top priority for the Trump Administration to look after the safety of every American, and we are seeing efforts from across the U.S. Government to support the recovery and safe return of this U.S. citizen.»
MINNESOTA MISSIONARY, A FATHER OF 5, KILLED IN ‘ACT OF VIOLENCE’ IN ANGOLA
Niger’s presidential palace in Niamey in 2023. The abduction reportedly took place only about 100 yards from the presidential palace. (AFP via Getty Images)
The missionary is a pilot for the evangelical missionary agency Serving in Mission, according to Reuters.
A general view of a crowded street market in Niamey, Niger, on May 17, 2023. The capital city has faced rising instability since the 2023 military coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum. (Michele Cattani / AFP via Getty Images)
TENNESSEE PASTOR KIDNAPPED AT GUNPOINT IN SOUTH AFRICA RECALLS ‘MIRACLE’ THAT SAVED HIS LIFE
The abduction took place only about 100 yards from the presidential palace in Niamey, where ousted President Mohamed Bazoum has been held since he was toppled by a coup more than two years ago, according to CBS News.
Following the kidnapping, the U.S. Embassy in Niger said it now requires all personnel to travel only in armored vehicles and announced that all restaurants and open-air markets are «off-limits».
Kidnappings appear to have intensified this year in areas of West Africa where militants operate. An Austrian woman was abducted in January in Niger, and a Swiss citizen was abducted in April in the same country, Reuters reported.
Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, salutes during an official ceremony in Niamey, Niger, on Aug. 26, 2023. Tchiani seized power in a July 2023 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and has ruled the West African nation since. (AFP via Getty Images)
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In addition, five Indian citizens working for a company providing services to Niger’s Kandadji dam project were kidnapped during an attack by armed men in April that also killed a dozen soldiers, according to the outlet.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.
state department,terrorism,africa,world,crime,religion,india
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