Senate Parliamentarian Shoots Down Schumer’s Second Bid to Include Amnesty in Reconciliation Bill

 

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Wednesday shut down Schumer’s second bid to include amnesty to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

Last Sunday MacDonough ruled Democrats cannot include amnesty in their gargantuan reconciliation bill because it not a budget-related matter.

The Democrats are pushing their $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill through budget reconciliation to go around Republicans because it will only need a simple majority to pass.

Democrat lawmakers tried to sneak immigration reform in the infrastructure bill because they know it will never pass in a vote that requires at least 60 votes to pass.

The Senate Parliamentarian rejected the Democrats’ effort to give illegals a pathway to citizenship because it would lead to “other, life-changing federal, state and societal benefits.”

Last week Schumer said he along with other senators are still working to include amnesty in the reconciliation bill by drafting “alternative proposals.”

Senate Democrats proposed legalizing millions of aliens by changing the date for when they can apply for citizenship.

MacDonough wasn’t impressed with this pitch and shut the Democrats down.

The Hill reported:

The Senate parliamentarian has nixed Democrats’ back-up plan for getting immigration reform into a sweeping spending bill, handing them a second setback.

Democrats had pitched parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants by making a change to the date for when undocumented immigrants within the United States can apply to adjust their legal status.

But MacDonough told Democrats that the option was a non-starter, according to a copy of the guidance obtained by The Hill. Democrats are pursuing other back-up plans with the Senate referee, according to a source familiar with Democrats’ strategy.

Changing the registry date is a “weighty policy change and our analysis of this issue is thus largely the same” as Democrats’ previous proposal to provide legal permanent resident status, MacDonough told Democrats in her guidance.