Senator Robert C. Byrd was a great American, who grew from membership in the KKK to a key role in progressive politics, working to advance the cause of working people and cutting waste, fraud and abuse in the federal budget. I had the chance to observe him as an intern and staffer for three Democratic Senators (Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart and Jim Sasser, 1974-1977). Fun fact: I flew to West Virginia in 1977 as a legislative research assistant, age 20, in the office of Democratic Senator James Ralph Sasser of Tennessee, the very first time I ever flew as an airplane passenger. I attended the dedication of a coal-fired powerplant in Rivesville, West Virginia, and saw and heard Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democratic Senate Leader, play his fiddle. He explained that the difference between a violin and a fiddle was the if you spilled moonshine on your fiddle, you wouldn't be concerned. In the Budget reform laws passed in Senator Byrd's wake, the "Byrd rule: and the "Byrd bath" are both named after the late conservative Democratic West Virginia United States Senator Robert C. Byrd, a reformed former KKK member who supported Senator Ted Kennedy's health care reform efforts. Senator Robert C. Byrd went to law school part-time and received his night school law degree at American University on June 10, 1963, the day that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke there at graduation and gave his magnificent "peace speech" in 1963. He cried when he voted for Obamacare and said he was dedicating his vote to "my friend, Ted Kennedy," the first of three U.S. Senators for whom I was honored to work as a freshman, sophomore and junior at Georgetown University, 1974-1977. From The New York Times:
Senate Official Rejects Food Aid Cuts Proposed by Republicans in Megabill
The ruling by the parliamentarian sent G.O.P. lawmakers back to the drawing board to cover the costs of President Trump’s domestic policy bill.
A top Senate official on Friday night rejected a bid by Republicans to slash federal food aid payments as part of their sweeping legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda, sending party leaders scrambling to find another way to help offset the massive cost of the bill.
The measure passed by the House last month and on track to be considered in the Senate next week would cover part of the cost of extending and expanding large tax cuts by cutting social safety net programs including Medicaid and nutrition programs, including SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.
Republicans are moving the bill through Congress using special rules that shield it from a filibuster, depriving Democrats of the ability to block it. But to qualify for that protection, the legislation must comply with a rigorous set of budgetary restrictions meant to ensure that it will not add to the deficit. And the Senate parliamentarian, an official appointed by the chamber’s leaders to enforce its rules and precedents, must evaluate such measures to ensure that every provision meets those requirements.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian, ruled that the SNAP measure, which would push some of the costs of nutrition assistance onto the states, did not. That sent Republicans back to the drawing board to find another strategy for covering tens of billions of dollars of the bill’s cost.
She also said Republicans could not include a provision that would bar immigrants who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents from receiving SNAP benefits, according to Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee.
The House-passed bill would require all states to pay at least 5 percent of SNAP benefit costs, and more if they reported a high rate of errors in underpaying or overpaying recipients. That provision was estimated to save roughly $128 billion.
Senate Republicans were unsettled by that plan, arguing it would tee up insurmountable budget shortfalls for their states. They softened it, advancing a lower share for states to shoulder than that set forward by the House proposal. On Saturday, Senator John Boozman, Republican of Arkansas and the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, said G.O.P. senators would continue to try to find a way to cut food assistance that complied with Senate rules.
The parliamentarian also will determine whether Republicans can keep a provision that would block states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade, and whether they can use a budget trickthat would make extending the 2017 tax cuts appear to be free.
Ms. MacDonough on Thursday struck several provisions in the bill that would reduce the power of financial regulatory agencies, including a proposal that would have effectively eliminated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a financial industry watchdog.
Language put forward by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Banking Committee, would cap the bureau’s funding at zero percent of the Federal Reserve’s total operating expenses, essentially gutting it. Republicans have long sought to curb the agency’s power, arguing that its regulations are overly burdensome to banks and other businesses.
The parliamentarian also ruled against language that would reduce the pay of some Federal Reserve employees; cut funding for the Office of Financial Research, an independent bureau that is supposed to monitor risk on Wall Street; and eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, an auditing watchdog.
Michael Gold and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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