It takes only an inch of snow to shut down Washington, but even the
nuclear option cannot get Republicans to shut down the Senate.
Several weeks after Harry Reid changed hundreds of years’ of Senate
rules by abolishing the filibuster for all judicial and executive
appointments, Republicans have all but forgotten about it. They could
have threatened to block every piece of legislation until the rules are
restored, but instead they are fully cooperating with a budget bill to
fund Obamacare and increase spending, along with a farm bill to grow
government intervention in the agriculture sector. They might even help
Democrats pass a bill that can be used as a vehicle for more gun restrictions.
Needless to say, without any fear of reprisal, Democrats plan to jam
through a number of Obama nominees before the end of the year on a
party-line vote.
Democrats will attempt to pack the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the
second most important court in the country, with Obama’s radical
nominees. On Monday evening, the Senate will vote on Patricia Millett.
They might try to push through two other D.C. Circuit nominees, Robert
Wilkins and Cornelia Pillard, later in the week. Republicans had been
blocking all D.C Circuit nominees because the court is currently split
between Republican and Democrat appointees, and unlike other courts,
this one actually has a very light caseload burden. The addition of
three more liberals would be devastating for conservatives because this
court has original jurisdiction over many of the constitutional issues
arising from political fights in Washington – both in Congress and with
Executive overreach.
The Senate will likely vote on the nomination of Congressman Melvin
Watt (D-NC) to be the next Director of the Federal Housing Finance
Agency (FHFA). Conservatives strongly oppose Watt because during his
career serving on the House Financial Services Committee, he has been a
consistent advocate for expanding the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
into the private housing market. He worked hand-in-glove with Barney
Frank to push the affordable housing agenda, which forced banks to
underwrite risky loans to those who could not pay them back. He helped
bring down the housing market, and by extension, the entire economy.
It would be a disaster for Watt to serve as the top regulator of
those failed agencies as director of FHFA. It’s akin to appointing the
arsonist as the fire chief.
So what should Republicans do?
They could start by suspending all negotiations on end-of-year
legislation, such as the budget deal, farm bill, and extension of
Medicare doc fix. But more importantly, as we’ve noted before, in order
for the Senate to function members must agree to unanimous consent on a
variety of procedures. Without a unanimous consent agreement, no
standing committee can conduct business after two hours from the time
the Senate convenes. With only two weeks left of this session,
Republicans can completely shut down the Senate by denying these UC
agreements.
Even after the nuclear option, 45 Senators have the ability to wreak havoc on the majority.
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Monday, December 9, 2013
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