Senate Republicans have revised language in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to eliminate the $200 tax stamp for firearm silencers — also known as suppressors — and scrap a similar tax stamp for short-barrel rifles.
It’s a win for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who pushed for the measure.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Friday ruled against a section of the bill that removes regulations pertaining to gun silencers and easily concealable firearms under the National Firearms Act.
She said the provision, which would have eliminated enhanced background checks for individuals who purchase suppressors, violated the Byrd Rule, which governs what legislation is eligible to pass the Senate with a simple-majority vote.
Legislation advanced through the upper chamber on the budget reconciliation fast track must be primarily of a budgetary nature. Significant policy changes that have a tangential or incidental budgetary impact are subject to 60-vote point-of-order objections.
The elimination of the $200 tax stamps for suppressors and short-barrel rifles is included in Section 70436 of the revised Senate bill, which Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), released late Friday evening.
Cornyn and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) scored another victory when GOP leaders kept language in the updated Senate bill providing $85 million for the transfer of the Discovery space shuttle from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to a non-profit group in Houston.
The parliamentarian had advised on Friday that the section of the bill appropriating money for the transfer violated the Byrd Rule.
Cornyn’s and Cruz’s staff revised the language later Friday to pass muster with the parliamentarian and it was included in the latest version of the Senate budget reconciliation bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has told Republican colleagues they will vote to proceed to the House-passed reconciliation package on Saturday. Senators will then amend that bill with the 940-page Senate substitute text.
