Senate ‘referee’ Says Cfpb Funding Can’t Be Cut Through Budget Reconciliation

The parliamentarian of the U.S. Senate — the nonpartisan “referee” who determines whether legislation meets the chamber’s governing rules — has ruled that efforts to include funding cuts for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the Republican majority’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act cannot be included because they violate budgetary rules.

This is according to reporting by multiple outlets. The decision endangers the potential for Republican lawmakers to add CFPB cuts to the massive budget bill that’s working its way through congressional debates.

The Republican majority in the Senate has long stated their desire to pass the budget bill through reconciliation, which requires some budget bills to pass with a simple majority vote rather than a supermajority of 60 votes to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule.

But reconciliation comes with requirements that are not being properly observed with the CFPB provision, parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) had sought to zero out the funding that the CFPB receives from the Federal Reserve, its primary budget source as codified in the Dodd-Frank Act.

But MacDonough said “a provision to effectively eliminate the budget for the CFPB could not be approved via a simple majority vote in the Republican-controlled chamber,” according to Reuters.

She also found that other provisions impacting Fed employees’ pay rates and other budget cuts are similarly off limits.

This does not preclude the provisions from being in the bill, but if Republicans want to keep them in, then a 60-vote threshold will be required to pass them. Republicans currently have 53 seats and Democrats have 47, so they would need support from seven Democrats to pass the bill with the current language.

Democrats have generally remained united in their opposition to major policy bills being introduced in the current Congress.

According to Reuters, Scott released a statement saying he would continue to work with the parliamentarian to find a path forward for the proposed cuts.

“I remain committed to advancing legislation that cuts waste and duplication in our federal government and saves taxpayer dollars,” Scott said, according to the report.