Senate Republicans cannot force the U.S. Postal Service to scrap thousands of electric vehicles and charging equipment in a massive tax and budget bill, the Senate parliamentarian said late on Sunday.
The U.S. Postal Service currently has 7,200 electric vehicles, made up of Ford e-Transit vehicles and specially built Next Generation Delivery Vehicles built by Oshkosh Defense.
USPS warned on June 13 that scrapping the electric vehicles would cost it $1.5 billion, including $1 billion to replace its current fleet of EVs and $500 million in EV infrastructure rendered useless and “seriously cripple our ability to replace an aging and obsolete delivery fleet.”
Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, whose role is to ensure lawmakers follow proper legislative procedure, said a provision to force the sale could not be approved via a simple majority vote in the Republican-controlled chamber and will instead need a 60-vote supermajority, according to Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee.
Watch them fire the parliamentarian and find a new one who will say yes. They’ve done this shit before.
The current Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, was appointed by Harry Reid in 2012. The previous Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, retired after having held the position twice (once appointed by Democrats and the second time by Republicans).
The last Parliamentarian who was “fired” was Robert Dove and like Alan Frumin he held the position twice. He was fired by Democrats in 1987, then brought back by Republicans in 95 then fired by Republicans in 2001.
Senate Parliamentarians don’t get “fired” very often, both parties seem to do it at about the same rate, and even when they are “fired” (demoted really) they tend to boomerang back into the position after a few years. There’s only been 6 of them since the role was established in 1935.
Aha! Here it is:
May 7, 2001
Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove, the official responsible for enforcing the chamber’s rules and procedures, has been asked to leave his post after a dispute with the Republican leadership, Senate sources said yesterday.
Dove angered Republicans, especially Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), with at least two recent rulings that effectively made it harder for the GOP to push President Bush’s budget and tax cut proposals through the evenly divided body
Thank you! I remember hearing that, during one of the budget reconciliations, the parliamentarian had denied that they could do <something> and so they replaced that person.
Ah, yes, Rafael Cruz, you miserable SOB: “Sen. “Ted Cruz” commented MacDonough should be fired or ignored”