Deal with Disagreement

Commentary

This article is a good example of an outside view used in decision-making, which we discussed in class 9. Mr. Frumin is the parliamentarian of the United States Senate. He is a registered Independent, and is the only parliamentarian to have been installed by both the Democrats and the Republicans. Today, his role is of increased interest as his rulings on procedural questions may determine whether president Obama winds up signing the healthcare reform or whether the reform collapses. He would help decision makers see the outside (nonpartisan) view of the healthcare reform and hopefully enable better decision-making.

Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/us/politics/14rules.html?hpw

Parliamentarian in Role as Health Bill Referee

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON — In the fall of 1968, a serious dark-haired young man arrived in the capital to do what serious young men here do: study law. Alan S. Frumin was calm, analytical and possessed of a dry wit. To his classmates, one trait stood out. He was a whiz at mastering the mind-numbing rules of civil procedure.

Today, Mr. Frumin puts his procedural acumen to use as the parliamentarian of the United States Senate. Most of the time, it is a quiet, under-the-radar kind of job. Not these days.

As Washington enters the final act of its long-running health care drama, Mr. Frumin — a nonpartisan civil servant who got his start as a precedents writer for the House — is in a starring role. His rulings on arcane procedural questions may determine whether President Obama winds up signing a health care overhaul or whether the administration's signature policy initiative collapses.

By Friday, Mr. Frumin had become a major preoccupation for Democrats and Republicans, as they tried to divine his views on whether Mr. Obama must sign a health bill into law before Democrats can use the filibuster-proof budgetary tactic known as reconciliation to make changes to it. In the weeks to come, there will be a slew of Republican challenges to reconciliation.

Technically, Mr. Frumin's decisions are not binding. But Senate leaders almost never overrule the parliamentarian, so he will effectively have the final word.

"He's basically the defense, the prosecution, the judge, the jury and the hangman in this scenario," said Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, whose staff has been meeting with Mr. Frumin on reconciliation matters for months. "It all comes down to him."

That makes some Republicans uncomfortable. Mr. Gregg calls Mr. Frumin "a very fair and straightforward guy in a very difficult job." But in a sign of how acrimonious the