Elizabeth MacDonough
| Elizabeth MacDonough | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | United States Senate |
| Role: | Parliamentarian |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Education: | •George Washington University •Vermont Law School |
Elizabeth MacDonough is an American lawyer. As of August 2025, she was the Senate parliamentarian, the chief advisor on rules and procedures in the U.S. Senate. When she was appointed in 2012, MacDonough was the first female ever named as Senate parliamentarian.[1]
Career
Education
MacDonough graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from George Washington University in 1988. She earned her law degree from Vermont Law School in 1998.[2]
Early career
During the 1990s, MacDonough worked as an aide in the U.S. Senate library and as an assistant editor of the Congressional Record.[3]
After completing her law degree in 1998, MacDonough served as assistant district counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, working on immigration cases in New Jersey.[2] In 1999, MacDonough returned to the Senate to serve as an assistant parliamentarian.[3] She was promoted to senior assistant parliamentarian in 2002.[4]
Work and activities
Work as Senate parliamentarian
In 2012, MacDonough was appointed to serve as the first female Senate parliamentarian. While other women have worked within the office of the Senate parliamentarian since its inception in 1935, MacDonough's 2012 appointment made her the first woman to head that office.[4][5]
According to the U.S. Senate website, the parliamentarian is the Senate's "adviser on the interpretation of its rules and procedures." The office of the parliamentarian also has other responsibilities, including referring bills to appropriate committees.[6] The office of the parliamentarian falls under the office of the secretary of the Senate.[4]
In her role as parliamentarian, MacDonough has advised members on a number of measures, including budget reconciliation bills related to the Affordable Care Act and the American Health Care Act. In 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill that would repeal certain components of the Affordable Care Act. When the bill arrived at the Senate, Republican leadership attempted to pass the bill using expedited procedures that required a simple majority rather than a sixty-vote majority to avoid a filibuster. MacDonough determined that under the Byrd rule, parts of the bill were not eligible for these expedited procedures.[7] The Byrd rule governs the process of budget reconciliation.[8]
In 2017, MacDonough advised Senate leadership that the American Health Care Act, as it arrived in the Senate from the House, would not be eligible for a simple majority vote due to the Byrd rule.[9] She again advised on procedure during the development of the Senate's version of the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act. She ruled that language eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood for one year and language banning abortion coverage in Obamacare insurance marketplaces was not permissible under the budget reconciliation process.[10]
MacDonough advised Chief Justice John Roberts during the impeachment trials of Donald Trump in 2019-2020 and 2021.[11]
In 2021, MacDonough ruled that Democratic lawmakers could not include an increase to the minimum wage and immigration measures in two key spending bills[2]
During debate on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025, MacDonough said that Republican lawmakers could not include some of their desired changes to Medicaid.[11]
Notable endorsements
This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Know of one we missed? Click here to let us know.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Elizabeth MacDonough. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- What is an influencer?
- United States Senate
- U.S. Department of Justice
- Obamacare overview
- American Health Care Act of 2017
- Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "Senate welcomes first female parliamentarian," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Associated Press' , "Meet the Senate parliamentarian, the official tying Republicans in knots over their tax bill," June 26, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Politico, "New parliamentarian's 'a pistol,'" accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Roll Call, "Senate Will See First Female Parliamentarian," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "The Office of the Parliamentarian in the House and Senate," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ United States Senate, "Glossary," accessed August 21, 2025
- ↑ New York Times, "Senate Rules Entangle Bid to Repeal Health Care Law," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ Politico, "GOP Obamacare repeal hits procedural speed bump," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ Business Insider, "'Trying to force a giraffe through a keyhole': An obscure Senate rule could kill the GOP's Obamacare replacement," accessed May 17, 2017
- ↑ Politico, "What's next in the Senate repeal saga? Good question," July 25, 2017
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 USA Today , "Trump allies call for Senate parliamentarian to be removed. Who is Elizabeth MacDonough?" June 26, 2025
| |||||||
