NARFE Newsline: Senate Reconciliation Bill Proposals Targeting Feds Violates Byrd Rule

Extreme provisions designed to eviscerate the merit-based civil service and grant broad new authority to the president to reorganize the federal government without additional congressional review and approval cannot be passed as part of H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” on a partisan basis, per a weekend ruling by the Senate Parliamentarian, according to Senate Budget Committee Democrats.

We expect these provisions will be removed prior to – or during – floor consideration, as they are subject to a point of order that can only be waived with 60 votes.

NARFE Staff Vice President of Policy and Programs John Hatton told Federal News Network on Monday that he was unsurprised that Republicans’ proposal to strip civil service protections for new feds was found to be a violation of what’s known as the Byrd Rule. The rule states that budgetary effects cannot be “merely incidental” to any non-budgetary or policy changes included in the reconciliation process.

“When you’re creating a choice between at-will employment or a penalty, that is more about a policy change than it is about saving money in the budget,” Hatton said. “But I think we still need to pay attention to provisions in the actual bill language. It’s most likely that these provisions are out and that they stay out. But it’s possible that something else replaces them, and that’s still a concern that we’ll be looking out for.”

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