Action 119 The Big Beautiful... Rules!
Background: According to the “Byrd Rule”, a Budget Reconciliation Bill can avoid being filibustered in the Senate (and pass with a simple majority vote) if it pertains only to the budget, and does not contain extraneous policy stuff. This rule was adopted to prevent the budget from becoming a “Christmas tree” festooned with the policy priorities of special interests. The House does not have a comparable rule. (1, 2). But that’s where the budget originates.
Apparently, Trump’s “Big Ugly Budget Bill”, currently sitting in the House Rules Committee, is larded with non-budget items. One such item is a provision to remove the tax exemption from “terrorist supporting nonprofits”. We talked about this particular Trump fever dream back in December when it appeared in the House as HR 9495. (Action Item #4 “Nonprofit Killer Bill”). It passed the House (Jared Golden was one of 15 Democrats voting for it) and now it’s hiding out in the budget. (3)
Maine does not have anyone on the powerful House Rules Committee (4) who could work to remove such policy items before sending the bill to the Senate for “reconciliation”. But our delegation can still do their part to block the Big Ugly Bill and move toward a more sensible tax policy that requires the Trump tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy to expire, as originally promised. For starters, get the policy items out of the budget – or prepare to filibuster it.
Action: Ask our delegation to do the following:
Representatives Golden and Pingree: Our two Democratic legislators of course need to vote NO, and if the bill passes the House anyway, ask them to tell you their plans to continue the fight. We need to know the specifics of what they are willing and able to do to protect Mainers from the budget monster.
Senator King: Rules say that if a Senator believes a reconciliation bill includes extraneous matter, they can raise a point of order against the bill. Ask Senator King to have his staff comb through the budget bill to find and highlight the non-budget items, and be prepared to raise “points of order” on all of them. Send him the reference in Extra Credit Item (3) for starters.
Senator Collins is in a somewhat different position as Chair of the Appropriations Committee. “The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has enormous power to bring home special projects (sometimes referred to as "pork barrel spending") for their state as well as having the final say on other senators' appropriation requests.” (5). She is proud that she has been able to curb a few of the cuts proposed for Maine. Let’s see if she can protect the big-ticket items like Medicaid, SNAP, and a host of other important state and national priorities that are slated to be savagely cut by the Trump Big Ugly Bill. (6) Tell her she needs to earn our trust.
Urgency: Contact the Representatives ASAP, the House Rules Committee is going to start markup at 1 AM Wednesday May 21 (the timing is pretty obviously designed to hide something, although the committee chair denies it) (7). Republicans want to pass the budget bill out of the House by Memorial Day. Don’t let them.
Extra Credit:
(1) https://epicforamerica.org/federal-budget/understanding-the-byrd-rule/
(3) Section 112209 pp. 1107-1115 termination of tax exempt status of terrorist supporting non-profits. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BU/BU00/20250516/118284/BILLS-119pih.pdf
(thank you B. Baker for calling this to our attention!)
(4) https://rules.house.gov/about/rules-committee-members. Operates in highly partisan fashion. https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/19/congress/rules-republicans-weigh-next-steps-00357890
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_Appropriations
(6) https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-house-republicans-budget-bill-guts-basic-needs-programs-for-the-most-vulnerable-americans-to-give-tax-breaks-to-the-rich/ and https://www.mecep.org/blog/federal-budget-recap-house-trades-food-security-and-health-care-for-billionaire-tax-cuts-in-one-big-ugly-bill/
(7) https://www.aol.com/why-meeting-1-m-major-202400352.html