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OK, so while everyone else is arguing about whether Newman's Own should be allowed to operate as it has or not, I'm curious about a different issue. What's a p

OK, so while everyone else is arguing about whether Newman's Own should be allowed to operate as it has or not, I'm curious about a different issue. What's a parliamentarian, and why can they unilaterally change bills? Or am I misunderstanding their role?

kale 9y ago
The senate has the filibuster provision to give the minority party the ability to slow down or block legislation. To overcome a filibuster, 3/5* of the senate have to vote to end it. At some point, the senate was afraid of gridlock, so there was a special provision made for things that deal with money (not sure if tax only), where things that have a minimal impact on the budget can overcome a filibuster with a simple majority. The parliamentarian is the one who decides if a bill is "minimal impact", which is set at $1.5T at the moment. Therefore the parliamentarian has decided that changing the non-profit law would cause this tax bill to be more than $1.5T in net change, meaning it can be filibustered. Edit: Wikipedia article [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_States_Senate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_... [2] * corrected my math, thanks to dragonwriter
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > The senate has the filibuster provision to give the minority party the ability to slow down or block legislation. In theory, that's not the purpose; the Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate, to assure proposals are fully vetted before being decided, though, yes, they clearly have that effect. > To overcome a filibuster, 2/3 of the senate have to vote to end it. No, to invoke cloture, 3/5 of the Senate have to vote to end debate [0], which is why you hear about a 60 vote bloc being filibuster-proof. [0] https://www.rules.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=RuleXXII https://www.rules.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=RuleXXII
probablyfiction 9y ago
The parliamentarian is someone who is thoroughly familiar with all of the Senate's rules. They ensure that bills that are passed comply with the rules that the Senate operates under. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_States_Senate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_...

kale 9y ago

The senate has the filibuster provision to give the minority party the ability to slow down or block legislation. To overcome a filibuster, 3/5* of the senate have to vote to end it. At some point, the senate was afraid of gridlock, so there was a special provision made for things that deal with money (not sure if tax only), where things that have a minimal impact on the budget can overcome a filibuster with a simple majority. The parliamentarian is the one who decides if a bill is "minimal impact", which is set at $1.5T at the moment. Therefore the parliamentarian has decided that changing the non-profit law would cause this tax bill to be more than $1.5T in net change, meaning it can be filibustered. Edit: Wikipedia article [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_States_Senate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_... [2] * corrected my math, thanks to dragonwriter

dragonwriter 9y ago
> The senate has the filibuster provision to give the minority party the ability to slow down or block legislation. In theory, that's not the purpose; the Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate, to assure proposals are fully vetted before being decided, though, yes, they clearly have that effect. > To overcome a filibuster, 2/3 of the senate have to vote to end it. No, to invoke cloture, 3/5 of the Senate have to vote to end debate [0], which is why you hear about a 60 vote bloc being filibuster-proof. [0] https://www.rules.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=RuleXXII https://www.rules.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=RuleXXII

probablyfiction 9y ago

The parliamentarian is someone who is thoroughly familiar with all of the Senate's rules. They ensure that bills that are passed comply with the rules that the Senate operates under. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_States_Senate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentarian_of_the_United_...