Starting at noon, the Senate will be in session all day, possibly past midnight, holding vote after vote on as many as 20 unconfirmed nominations made by the Obama administration. These will be procedural cloture votes that, thanks to Majority Leader Harry Reid’s prior invocation of the Nuclear Option, will only require 50 votes to pass.
A senior Senate Democratic aide said Democrats want to confirm about 20 nominees before adjourning for the year, including Vivek Murthy to be surgeon general. Republicans oppose Murthy because they believe he is unqualified and the National Rifle Association opposes him for supporting gun control policies.
Other nominees on the list who have also drawn Republican opposition include Anthony Blinken to be John Kerry’s deputy at the State Department; Sarah Saldana to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Carolyn Colvin to head the Social Security Administration. The list also includes some ambassadors and about nine judges, the aide said.
The Democrats want all these people confirmed before they hand over control of the Senate to the Republicans next year, but some recalcitrant conservative senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, refused to give their unanimous consent. They also blocked a vote scheduled for Monday on the so-called CRomnibus appropriations bill.
This shows that Mitch McConnell isn’t very good at his job.
The senior Democratic aide noted McConnell left the Capitol Friday evening apparently believing he had a deal with Reid to avoid a weekend vote-a-rama, telling reporters, “see ya Monday.”
“Senator McConnell left the Capitol apparently thinking there was a deal but his caucus rejected it after he left, while Senator Cruz took to the Senate floor to openly question Senator McConnell’s honesty and integrity,” the aide said.
I’m not going to worry myself about the difficulties the two parties are having passing this CRomnibus bill because it contains some horrible provisions that weaken oversight of megabanks and campaign finance limits. But the bigger picture is that the funding levels are higher and better targeted than they will be if this whole thing blows up and the GOP has to do it from scratch next year.
I guess the best outcome would be if Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) can get a vote on an amendment to strip out the crap that’s been inserted in this “must-pass” bill. If Ted Cruz inadvertently allows that to happen, more power to him.
I would like to see a government shutdown over the Dodd Frank provision. It is sickening that R’s want this sort of thing just a few years after the implosion. Folks need to be aware that this is what they are all about. I am very afraid that in 2016 an attitude of give the other guys a chance will prevail. Voter complacency and R dishonesty are a dangerous mixture.
It is sickening that R’s want this sort of thing just a few years after the implosion.
Plenty of Democrats want it too. The Steny Hoyers and Steve Israels of the world.
The argument that Hoyer and others made is that next year their bargaining abilities will be greatly reduced and this is the best they can get. This is Obama’s rationale as well. The overall budget number is ok and funding for various priorities remained intact. Perhaps this tactic has merits, but I would prefer just getting that veto pen up and running.
Do you know all of what this bill does? Saying it’s a shit sandwich is being unkind to shit sandwiches. Here:
http://www.ibtimes.com/pension-fund-run-wall-street-cited-push-cut-retiree-benefits-1748439
is something that no one is talking about but is a BFD, as Biden would say. Good luck explaining to retirees why their pensions were cut in half. And that’s far from the only other thing bad about it.
I agree, yet it’s not just th Steny Hoyers; even a lot of people like Jeff Merkley voted yes. I don’t know why, but there probably was a good reason. I’m sure he doesn’t want it.
What worries me is if they can pull this kind of crap while we still have a Democratic senate, what’s going to happen over the next few years? That is evidently why Pelosi and Warren are talking tough, but is it just talk?
Yes, it’s just talk. Warren could require 60 votes but she won’t. So it’s just talk for the voters back home.
What do you mean, Warrne could require? She doesn’t control the vote, she’s not majority leader. She just gave a speech like I haven’t hears in many a year.
She could filibuster. R’s do it all the time.
Obama has urged passage of the Cromnibus without changes, straight up and down. This was in a legislative guidance memo sent to Democratic House members.
Jim Moran is my (outgoing) congressman. He’s a pretty liberal guy (but is a bit unconventional at times).
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/227046-dem-dont-be-scared-of-warren
I don’t think it’s a benign provision (why would the banks want it if they didn’t think it would help them make more money?), but I don’t think it’ll gut Dodd-Frank if it’s there. But it is a bad sign if they can put things like this in to whittle away at D-F.
We’ll see what happens…
Cheers,
Scott.
Citing Paul Volcker’s opinion about it pretty much ruins Moran’s credibility on the issue.
Also, claiming Warren is “demagoguing” the issue is obvious Repub / financial industry framing, however “pretty liberal” he might otherwise seem.
What a moran.
“There will never be another bank bailout.”
Well, when the last one never ended…
Until there is. Oh, right. “It’s different this time”.
The only issue that matters here is Wall Street gutting Dodd-Frank. Republicans made an enormous blunder by allowing that rider into the bill. This is a serious deviation from the usual White-Power-Republican politics that Democrats generally lose by allowing a populist issue to emerge that will resonate with both the right and the left against the Corporate Congressional Caucus. Corporate Democrats including Obama and Reid are in real trouble if they don’t quickly get on the right side of this issue. Republicans are once again exposed for who they have always been. Elizabeth Warren made this complex issue so simple that even low information racist voters can understand because another bailout for Wall Street is so extremely toxic. Corporate Democrats need to change or they risk being defeated in primaries because they are now forced to reveal themselves by how they vote on this issue. Democrats finally have a chance to stand for something, that being the people.
Cutting ERISA pension payments in half is pretty important too.
The media’s overhyped Warren v. Obama “split” is a winning tactic – for America Rising types.
I see tons of GOP strategist retweets of anything that pushes Warren attacking Obama (and by proxy, Clinton of course – this is about the next election).
There are legit reasons for opposing the cromnibus portions on deregulation, but we should also be aware that it’s a win-win for Republicans too – and expect tons more of this backing the “two wings” of the Democratic Party into corners in the next GOP-controlled Congress.
Senator Cruz took to the Senate floor to openly question Senator McConnell’s honesty and integrity -> more of this please.
Hmm. There are some who think the Dodd Frank thingie is important but not as big a deal as Warren is making of it, and certainly not the core of Dodd Frank. See Smartypants and comments:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/12/did-cromnibus-kill-wall-street-reform.html#comment-form