WASHINGTON — House Republicans are turning to a new tool to help overcome a longstanding battle that has existed for both parties: getting legislation past the Senate parliamentarian.
The Republican Study Committee, the main conservative caucus in the House GOP conference, unveiled the framework for its second attempt at a reconciliation bill last week aimed toward implementing a number of Republican policies before the midterm elections. Several of the proposed policies include measures that were stripped from the massive tax bill last summer after the Senate parliamentarian ruled they violated the strict rules of reconciliation, otherwise known as the Byrd Rule.
This time around, Republicans have developed an AI tool “trained on thousands of Byrd Rule documents” to help generate compliant legislation that can withstand challenges from the parliamentarian. That tool, they argue, will help them avoid having policies stripped out — or to assist in challenging the parliamentarian if needed, some Republicans say.
“It will help us better prepare and better anticipate what challenges we might have in the Senate with the parliamentarian over the Byrd Rule (to) give us better success — or to better prepare us to litigate it with the parliamentarian,” House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told the Deseret News. “It’s all just to help give us a better success rate.”
In the reconciliation process, the parliamentarian must review all provisions and proposals to ensure they adhere to the strict rules that allow the package to be free from the filibuster. Through the budget reconciliation process, the majority party can prevent a filibuster to expedite the passage of certain legislation and go around the minority party by enacting key pieces of their agenda with a simple majority vote.
But there are certain rules that dictate how often reconciliation can be used, and the procedure can only be utilized to advance budget-related legislation such as taxes, spending and the debt limit.
The parliamentarian is responsible for reviewing each provision based on those guidelines to approve whether it is subject to a simple-majority vote or must go through the filibuster process.
Members of both parties, depending on who is in the majority at the time, have long had their complaints about the parliamentarian — mostly lamenting about how the one unelected staffer can have so much say over their legislation.
“It’s been the most consequential legislative tool,” Arrington said of reconciliation, “and then you got this person unelected in the middle of it, litigating these things and being the arbiter on what is reconciliation-worthy and legitimate and what isn’t.”
The AI tool will mostly serve as a preventative tool to avoid disagreements with the parliamentarian, RSC Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told the Deseret News. But it could lay the groundwork to reform how the process works in the future.
“This is an exciting use of AI, right?” Pfluger said. “To understand, like, ‘Well, what did they do in the past, and what does that mean now? If that was the standard, then let’s apply the same standard, the same stuff that we’re trying to do (now) so it’s more preventative and a refinement of our own bill.”
But the tool comes after prominent pushback toward the parliamentarian last summer, when some Republicans even suggested firing her after she stripped out several of their policies.
“There’s a lot of conversation about the parliamentarian, a lot of criticism as well, and a lot of known bias that we have seen in the past,” Pfluger said.
How will lawmakers use new AI tool?
It’s not guaranteed Republicans will use the AI system as a way to overrule — or even replace — the parliamentarian. But Republicans such as Arrington say it could be a potential tool to help them make their case.
“It’s going to run the various scenarios using historical data, and it’s going to help us better anticipate how to write something that would have a better chance (at passing), and to also understand what the challenges might be when presenting it to the parliamentarian,” Arrington said. “The human element is going to come into play, and that’s something you can’t model completely. But you can look at historical data, and then you can start studying why certain things were Byrded out.”
The idea has perked some ears across party lines.
When Democrats pushed their own reconciliation bill through Congress in 2021, some party members similarly wanted to fire or overrule the parliamentarian after she ruled against a provision to increase the federal minimum wage. That was stripped out by Elizabeth MacDonough, the same parliamentarian who ruled against Republicans last summer.
That disdain toward the parliamentarian in general still exists among some Democrats.
“I will tell you my biggest concern, and it’s one that members of the House should have, whether they’re Democratic or Republican,” Rep. Brandon Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told the Deseret News. “How in the world do we have this reconciliation process that gives so much power to an unelected appointed Senate employee?”
Boyle, D-Pa., said the process as a whole should be reformed to “rein in the power of the Senate parliamentarian,” arguing lawmakers who are elected should have more authority.
When asked if an AI tool is a valid way to replace the parliamentarian, Boyle said he’d “have to learn more about it.”
“The whole process on reconciliation and the whole budget process needs fundamental reformation,” he added.
Other Democrats are not yet sold on the idea.
“I know they’re dumb, but they have to use AI to try to make bills compliant with the rules of the Senate?” Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, told the Deseret News. “It just seems strange to me.”
Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee also appeared to brush off the proposal to bring AI into the picture, posting an official statement on X that there is “no need to use” the system.
“We already know the American people don’t want more cuts to working class programs so that Republicans can deliver bigger tax breaks to their wealthy donors,” the post read, criticizing the massive tax package passed through reconciliation last summer.
It’s not yet clear whether Republicans will be successful in passing a second reconciliation bill, especially as there has been notable skepticism from party leaders such as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Trump himself.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., appeared to tamp down expectations about the likelihood of success on Tuesday, telling reporters “there is no consensus yet.”
“I’d sure love to do one,” Scalise said, “but obviously, with a now one-seat majority, basically it means we’ve all got to come together and agree on what that framework would look like.”
