The Most Important Vote in the U.S. Senate
Most the time, Elizabeth MacDonough’s job is as unglamorous and uncontroversial as any in Congress—tedious even. Since 2012, she has served as parliamentarian of the Senate, which means her role, as outlined on the Senate’s web site, is “to provide expert advice and assistance on questions relating to the meaning and application of that chamber's legislative rules, precedents, and practices.”
Day to day, the work is pretty straightforward. If a member has a nitpicky question about how to handle an arcane motion, he takes it to MacDonough—typically well before an issue reaches the floor so as to avoid looking publicly foolish. Though appointed by leadership, the parliamentarian strives to be nonpartisan, steeped not in politics but in the brain-frying minutiae of the
