Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., told Newsmax on Friday that House legislators have "flights booked" to return to Washington next week after the Senate finalizes and passes the reconciliation bill.
The Senate this week continued work on the text of the wide-ranging tax and domestic policy bill that passed the House last month, which suffered a setback after Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, a nonpartisan official appointed by the Senate majority leader, advised that the bill's Medicaid provisions violates the Upper Chamber's rules.
Alford said on "Wake Up America" that lawmakers are "waiting on the Senate parliamentarian, who figures out what's legal and what's not under the Byrd rule," which he said is necessary "because we don't have to have 60 votes in the Senate to get this done, that's why we do things through this reconciliation package."
MacDonough was installed by late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2012.
Alford went on to accuse the parliamentarian of being "pretty partisan" due to her rulings on provisions in the bill, saying senators are "trying to reword some of these provisions that would be acceptable to this parliamentarian, who I think ought to be fired, anyway. I think she's pretty partisan over there in the Senate but that would just slow down the process."
Alford added: "The Senate's going to do its job. They're going to be working through the weekend" while House legislators will "go home for a couple of days" for the Fourth of July holiday.
Alford said House lawmakers "are on standby. We've got our flights booked for early next week to come back here and vote on this package after the Senate passes theirs. ... Our hope has always been is to get this on the president's desk, possibly signing in the Rose Garden on Independence Day."
Alford said that "Republicans in the House conference are very strongly in formation to get this done" despite "concerns from some in the Freedom Caucus who don't want provisions stripped out that the Senate was going to strip out."
Alford said the House is "in control" noting, "the Senate wanted originally two different reconciliation bills" but House legislators "insisted on one because we knew how hard it would be to get this done and we won that the Senate's going to have to do their jobs now."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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