Senate Language Zeroing Out Taxes on Suppressors, Short-Barrels Passes Byrd Bath

The Senate’s “vote-a-rama” of the One Big Beautiful Bill is expected to continue throughout the day, but gun owners have already received some good news about the language zeroing out taxes on most NFA items after a proposal to nix both the taxes and registration requirements was shot down by the Senate parliamentarian. 

🚨BREAKING🚨

$0 NFA tax stamps for suppressors & short-barreled firearms (SBRs, SBSs, & AOWs) clears the “Byrd Bath” with the Parliamentarian.

But, gun owners should not give up on a full NFA tax strike. @LeaderJohnThune & @JDVance must fire/overrule the Parliamentarian! 🔥

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 30, 2025

Thune’s shown no openness to fire or overruling the parliamentarian, even after Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social and agreed that her rulings shouldn’t “be allowed to hurt the Republicans bill.” 

Two Republicans have already said they’ll vote against the bill because of concerns about deficit spending and cuts to Medicaid, and I suspect that one of the reasons Thune has been silent about firing Elizabeth MacDonough is that breaking with tradition might cause two others to vote against the bill; either in protest or because of what the bill would look like if her rulings were disregarded. 

I don’t think the issue would be the expanded NFA language, by the way. There are a host of other provisions in the bill that have yet to be resolved. I suspect that even if Thune is philosophically okay with ousting the parliamentarian, he isn’t trying to wrangle 51 votes to fire MacDonough because he has his hands full trying to get 51 votes to pass the OBBB in whatever form it ultimately takes. 

Republican fiscal hawks and White House officials are trying to kill off a series of Senate megabill amendments that would ease the phase-out of clean-energy tax credits — arguing the move would strip out hundreds of billions of dollars in budget savings and potentially risk GOP support for the overall bill.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and other senators are forging ahead with plans to offer a series of amendments doing just that. One from Murkowski would offer a reprieve for projects that have started construction; critics of the credits want them eliminated quickly for projects that aren’t already completed. 

It’s setting up a major intra-party fight as Senate GOP leaders race to pass the massive bill out of their chamber and send it to the House in the coming hours. Fiscal hawks on both sides of the Capitol are warning they will oppose the bill if the phase-outs of Inflation Reduction Act provisions are watered down.

That’s one issue, but there are others, like West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice opposition to an amendment from Florida Sen. Rick Scott) dealing with Medicaid payments. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, meanwhile, is set to introduce an amendment to double the rural hospital fund; a move which has budget hawks squawking in protest. 

The outcome of the OBBB itself isn’t guaranteed, but the language zeroing out the taxes on most NFA items appears to be safe. Should the registration language have passed muster with MacDonough? Absolutely. As Rep. Andrew Clyde and others have pointed out, without the taxes there’s no need for a registry of who paid them. 

Still, if the Senate’s amended language becomes law it would be the biggest NFA reform in nearly a century. And as Williams pointed out on today’s podcast, it would also lead to a substantial increase in lawfully owned suppressors and short-barreled firearms, which will only bolster the argument that they’re protected by the Second Amendment because they’re in common use for lawful purposes. If the NFA disappears, so does its registration requirements. Repealing it through legislation is just one possibility, and the courts can be used to take apart that regime without having to rely on a partisan parliamentarian’s point of view.