The Parliamentarian of the United States Senate is the official advisor to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

on the interpretation of

Standing Rules of the United States Senate The Standing Rules of the Senate are the parliamentary procedures adopted by the United States Senate that govern its procedure. The Senate's power to establish rules derives from Article One, Section5 of the United States Constitution: "Each ...

and

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...

. Incumbent parliamentarian

Elizabeth MacDonough Elizabeth MacDonough (born February 16, 1966) is an American lawyer and the Parliamentarian of the United States Senate since 2012. She is the first woman to hold the position. Early life and education MacDonough grew up near Washington DC, grad ...

has held the office since 2012, appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

. As the Presiding Officer of the Senate may not be, and usually is not, aware of the parliamentary situation currently facing the Senate, a parliamentary staff sits second from the left on the Senate

dais A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)dais
in the Random House Dictionary< ...

to advise the Presiding Officer on how to respond to inquiries and motions from Senators (including "the Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery"). The role of the parliamentary staff is advisory, and the Presiding Officer or Senate may overrule the advice of the parliamentarian. In practice, this is rare; the most recent example of a Vice President (as President of the Senate) overruling the parliamentarian was

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...

in 1975. That ruling was extremely controversial, to such an extent that the leaders of both parties immediately met and agreed that they did not want this precedent to stand, so the next week the Senate altered the rule under consideration via standard procedure. The

Senate Majority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding t ...

may also fire the parliamentarian, as occurred in 2001 during a dispute between parliamentarian

Robert Dove Robert B. Dove (October 18, 1938 – July 28, 2021) was a parliamentarian of the United States Senate and a professor of political science at George Washington University. Early life and education Dove was born in Hamilton, Ohio and attended Ohi ...

and Majority Leader

Trent Lott Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lawyer, author, and politician. A former United States Senator from Mississippi, Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both the United States House of Representatives and the ...

Overview

An important role of the parliamentarian is to decide what can and cannot be done under the Senate's budget reconciliation process under the provisions of the

Byrd Rule Budget reconciliation is a special parliamentary procedure of the United States Congress set up to expedite the passage of certain budgetary legislation in the United States Senate. The procedure overrides the filibuster rules in the Senate, w ...

. These rulings are important because they allow certain bills to be approved by a simple majority, instead of the sixty votes needed to end debate and overcome a

filibuster A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...

. The office also refers bills to appropriate committees on behalf of the Senate's Presiding Officer, and referees efforts by the ruling party to change the Senate rules by rulings from the chair. The parliamentarian is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the

. Traditionally, the parliamentarian is chosen from senior staff in the parliamentarian office, which helps ensure consistency in the application of the Senate's complex rules. The last two parliamentarians have served under both Republican and Democratic Senate leaders. The Parliamentarian's salary is $172,500 per year, as of 2018.

List of Parliamentarians

The following individuals have served as Senate Parliamentarian: There have only been six senate parliamentarians since the role was founded, with Dove and Frumin each serving two non-consecutive terms.

Notes

References

Glossary Term , Parliamentarian
Senate.gov
The Office of the Parliamentarian in the House and Senate

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a ...

Employees of the United States Senate * {{US-Congress-stub

Overview

List of Parliamentarians

See also

Notes

References