Senate Dems Map Last-Ditch Strategies to Alter Tax Bill

Tax attorney Joshua Odintz was quoted in a Tax Notes article detailing Senate Democrats' attempts to force Republicans to scale back aspects of their budget reconciliation bill. One of the party's plans is to ask the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, to review the tax package issued by the Senate Finance Committee on June 16, 2025, and determine whether the bill's provisions follow budget reconciliation rules. Also known as a "Byrd bath" after former Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the process could lead to the striking of both substantive features such as the addition of the Section 899 tax as well as non-substantive parts like the name of the bill and its table of contents. Of note, however, as Mr. Odintz clarified, lawmakers have to be the ones to raise Byrd rule issues with the legislation, meaning they can also be selective about what areas to challenge.

"It's really not up to the parliamentarian to scrub the bill and identify all the errors," he explained. "It's up to the minority party to raise the objections."

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