Elizabeth MacDonough

Elizabeth MacDonough is an American lawyer and the Parliamentarian of the United States Senate since 2012. She is the first woman to hold the position.[1][2]

Elizabeth MacDonough
Parliamentarian of the United States Senate
Assumed office
February 2, 2012
Preceded byAlan Frumin
Personal details
Born
Elizabeth Coss MacDonough

1966/1967 (age 54–55)
EducationGeorge Washington University (BA)
Vermont Law School (JD)

Early life

MacDonough grew up near Washington DC, graduating from Greens Farms Academy in 1984[3] and earning her bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1988.[1][4]

Career

MacDonough began her career in 1990 as a legislative reference assistant in the Senate library and later as assistant morning business editor to the Congressional Record.[1] She left in 1995 to attend Vermont Law School, graduating with a JD in 1998.[4][5] During law school, MacDonough interned with Judge Royce C. Lamberth (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Burlington, Vermont.[4] After graduating, she worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice handling immigration cases in New Jersey.[1]

MacDonough joined the office of the Senate Parliamentarian in May 1999 as an assistant parliamentarian and was promoted to senior assistant parliamentarian in 2002.[4][6] She advised then-Vice President Albert Gore on the procedure for counting ballots following Bush v. Gore.[4]

At her appointment to Parliamentarian in 2012, she was praised by outgoing Parliamentarian Alan Frumin as "down-to-earth," describing her personal knowledge of Capitol staffers; and by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) as "smart, diligent ... and she's got integrity."[1] Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said "she's very steeped in the traditions of the Senate and understands how it works here" and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said he had "no question about her ability to read the rules and make the right decisions."[7]

During the 2015 congressional effort to partially repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), MacDonough ruled the provision that would roll back the Independent Payment Advisory Board disqualified the 2015 package from consideration as a reconciliation bill in the Senate under the Byrd Rule, which requires that reconciliation bills must have a budgetary effect. Rather than the simple, filibuster-free 51-vote majority required to pass a reconciliation bill, the 2015 package would require a 60-vote threshold to pass in the Senate, which effectively killed the legislation in the Senate, as Republicans did not hold the requisite votes.[8][9] Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) commented MacDonough should be fired or ignored, although since the procedural rulings are officially made by the president of the Senate (in 2015, it was then-Vice President Joe Biden), firing MacDonough would have made no difference, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the senior senator from Texas, dismissed Cruz's comments, saying ousting MacDonough would be "like firing the judge if you disagree with his ruling."[10]

During the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 MacDonough ruled the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which limits the political speech of churches, could not be included in the bill.[11]

In January, 2017, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) said that MacDonough would be the person to "watch" in the Senate, because budget reconciliation would likely again be the tool used to pass amendments to the Affordable Care Act.[12][13]

In 2017, MacDonough read the language of Senate Rule XIX to Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), presiding over a Senate session, which Daines carefully repeated while warning Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for reading statements from Ted Kennedy and Coretta Scott King condemning the nomination of Jeff Sessions.[14] The Senate subsequently voted 49 to 43 to uphold Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's objection that Warren had impugned Sessions's character.[15][16]

In a 2018 commencement speech at her alma mater, Vermont Law School, MacDonough called the invocation of the 'nuclear option' in 2013 and 2017 as a "stinging defeat that I tried not to take personally".[17] The 2013 vote removed the need for a three-fifths supermajority for cloture for all executive and judicial nominations bar those for the Supreme Court, while the 2017 vote removed the requirement for nominations to the Supreme Court.

MacDonough received attention prior to the 2020 impeachment trial of Donald Trump due to her role in advising Chief Justice John Roberts on parliamentary procedure while presiding over the trial.[17]

MacDonough has been praised by President pro tempore Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and former majority whip John Cornyn (R-TX), with Leahy saying that he had "been here with many, many parliamentarians. All were good. But she’s the best." and Cornyn saying that "she's tough" and "she calls them straight down the middle."[17]

In June 2020, MacDonough provided a decision to Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) ruling that a vote on the Senator's WTO withdrawal resolution was in order.[18] However, she reversed herself two weeks later after considering new arguments regarding the timetable requirements from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).[19]

MacDonough speaks publicly only once a year, to address the United States Senate Youth Program.[20]

In January 2021, MacDonough and her staff safeguarded the electoral college votes from the 2020 presidential election by removing them to a secure location as armed rioters breached the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of that election.[21][22]

Personal life

MacDonough lives in Arlington, Virginia.[23]

References
  1. Rogers, David (6 February 2012). "New parliamentarian's 'a pistol'". Politico. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  2. Barrett, Ted (January 31, 2012). "Senate welcomes first female parliamentarian". CNN. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
  3. "Distinguished Alumni Award". GFA Magazine. GFA Office of Advancement. Fall 2013. p. 20. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  4. "Alumni Profiles (Elizabeth MacDonough)". Vermont Law School. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
  5. Dole, Bob; Daschle, Tom (5 August 1995). "Best wishes to Elizabeth MacDonough". Congressional Record. 141 (130): S11602. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  6. Tummarello, Kate (30 January 2012). "Senate Will See First Female Parliamentarian". Roll Call. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  7. Haberkorn, Jennifer (14 January 2015). "Obamacare's little secret". Politico. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  8. Quinn, Melissa (20 October 2015). "Senate Parliamentarian: House Partial Obamacare Repeal Dead-on-Arrival in Senate". The Daily Signal. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  9. Pear, Robert (12 November 2015). "Senate Rules Entangle Bid to Repeal Health Care Law". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  10. Lesniewski, Niels (22 October 2015). "Cruz: Senate Umpire Works for Us". Roll Call. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  11. Johnson Amendment Repeal Removed from Final GOP Tax Bill | News & Reporting | Christianity Today
  12. Peterson, Kristina (16 January 2017). "Chief Senate Parliamentarian Will Play Crucial Role in Health Care Legislation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 February 2017.(subscription required)
  13. Wice, Sam (30 November 2016). "Why Elizabeth MacDonough Will Be the Most Powerful Person in America". Notice & Comment [blog]. Yale Journal on Regulation. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  14. Lutey, Tom (8 February 2017). "Daines stands by decision to gavel down Warren". Billings Gazette. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  15. Kane, Paul; O'Keefe, Ed (February 8, 2017). "Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions's character". Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  16. Hawkins, Derek (February 8, 2017). "The silencing of Elizabeth Warren and an old Senate rule prompted by a fistfight". Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  17. Samuelsohn, Darren (January 13, 2020). "John Roberts may be leading the Senate impeachment trial, but this woman is shaping it". POLITICO. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  18. Doug Palmer (23 June 2020). "Exclusive: Congress can take vote to withdraw from WTO in July". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  19. Doug Palmer (1 July 2020). "New ruling quashes Hawley's hope for Senate WTO withdrawal vote". Politico. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  20. "Senate officers, often behind the scenes, play starring roles in USSYP". United States Senate Youth Program. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  21. "The Photos of These Women Saving the Ballot Boxes Belong in History Books". Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  22. "Senate salvages Electoral College ballots before rioters break into the chamber". CNBC. CNBC. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  23. "U.S. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to Deliver Vermont Law School Commencement Address". Vermont Law School. GlobeNewswire News Room. 10 April 2018. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
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