Healthcare reform’s fate lies in the hands of parliamentarian

The fate of healthcare reform may come down to the decisions of one unelected congressional officer: Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin.

Frumin will decide which proposals can be passed through a special budget process Democrats are considering to move healthcare reform this year. Bills submitted through the process, known as reconciliation, aren’t subject to filibusters, meaning Democrats would need only 51 votes — and probably no Republicans — to win approval.

{mosads}If Democrats decide to go the reconciliation route, Frumin will face pressure from both parties to rule in their favor.

“It’s horrible,” said Robert Dove, Frumin’s predecessor as Senate parliamentarian. “It’s absolutely horrible. It puts the parliamentarian in a terrible position. I have done it myself and been extraordinarily criticized. I assume he will be also.”

Frumin, who did not respond to requests for an interview, would hold power because he would be called on to referee the Senate’s rules.

Reconciliation was created to make it easier to pass measures that directly affect government revenues, spending and debt. Under the “Byrd rule,” however, senators can strike provisions that they believe are extraneous to those goals. But what is extraneous and what is relevant aren’t clear, and the only person who gets to makes those decisions is the parliamentarian.

One way or the other, either Democrats or Republicans will be disappointed. It’s a no-win situation, Dove said.

“I talk to him regularly. He is not looking forward to this,” Dove told The Hill. “All I can tell you is he’s a very good man. He will call it straight. He will make all kind of enemies.”

Republicans have warned Democrats not to use reconciliation, saying that it would be undemocratic and would go against the president’s talk of bipartisanship.

“My opinion is that it would be a complete disaster because you’d end up with a parliamentarian writing a healthcare bill,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Both parties are already lobbying Frumin. Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee and Senate aides from both parties have met with him to discuss the Byrd rule, named after initial sponsor Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). Frumin told Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) a few weeks ago that legislation passed through the reconciliation process may end up looking like “Swiss cheese,” because certain provisions of a bill may survive while others are stricken, Conrad said.

“In every iteration [of our meetings on reconciliation], we’re trying to understand because the devil really is in the details,” Conrad said. “So we’ve had many discussions with the parliamentarian.”

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), another Democrat on the Budget Committee, said that she has spoken to Frumin and understands his importance.

“The practical reality is that whatever is done [in reconciliation], each section has to relate to increasing revenues or expenditures or debt. So the parliamentarian makes a judgment all the way through the process,” she said.

Democrats in Congress appear to be leaning toward using reconciliation to finally pass healthcare reform, which President Obama and other party leaders have vowed to do this year.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he’d like to see reconciliation rules for healthcare included in the budget resolution. And House Democrats have already included those instructions for healthcare and education reform in their plan. Whether reconciliation instructions are included in the final budget resolution will depend on conference negotiations, which will take place over the next few weeks.

Parliamentarians know their job can be perilous.

Dove was fired in 2001 (Frumin replaced him) after Republican senators, then in the majority, disputed several of his rulings. Dove, who was hired by GOP senators, had decided that parts of a Republican tax cut plan couldn’t be passed through the reconciliation process because to do so would have enlarged the federal deficit.

Frumin was criticized in 2003, first by Republicans after he ruled that they couldn’t use reconciliation rules to consider a $350 billion tax cut bill. A few weeks later, he piqued Democrats by dismissing as out of order several of their amendments to a Defense Department authorization  bill.

Frumin, who normally sits below the presiding officer on the Senate dais, has worked in the parliamentarian’s office since 1977. He went to college at Colgate, has a law degree from Georgetown and has co-authored a book on Senate rules.

Budget experts believe Frumin can take the heat.

“He’s known for being substantively rigorous and he understands the value of precedent,” said Stan Collender, a partner at Qorvis Communications and a former Democratic budget aide. “He’s not likely to just come up with a ruling that’s completely off the wall. He’s known to do his job really well and tries to call it pretty straight.”

Dove said that senators won’t be shy about lobbying the parliamentarian. But for Frumin, that won’t be anything new.

“I can remember a group of senators, maybe eight of them in the office, and Alan and I were standing behind our desks trying to explain to them our position,” Dove said. “They were angry.”