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Senate Democrats took the dramatic step Thursday of eliminating filibusters for most nominations by presidents, a power play they said was necessary to fix a broken system but one that Republicans said will only rupture it further. Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades. The immediate rationale for the move was to allow the confirmation of three picks by President Obama to the U.S....

President Trump is eager to put his conservative imprint on the federal judiciary, but an impediment remains. Though the Senate has virtually eliminated the ability of the minority party to block appointments to the bench from the Supreme Court on down, individual senators can still thwart nominees from their home states by refusing to sign off on a form popularly known for its color — the blue slip. Now, with some Democrats refusing to consent as the Trump administration moves to fill scores of judicial vacancies, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, is for the first time...

The procedure for withholding consent is straightforward, but deploying it is tricky. For the Senate to move in a timely fashion on any order of business, it must obtain unanimous support from its members. But if a single senator objects to a consent agreement, McConnell, now majority leader, will be forced to resort to time-consuming procedural steps through the cloture process, which takes four days to confirm nominees and seven days to advance any piece of legislation — and that’s without amendment votes, each of which can be subjected to a several-day cloture process as well.

In the first week of April, 2017, a nostalgic nation watched as one of the grand old institutions crumbled into dust: the Senate filibuster was removed from the toolbox for presidential appointments. Many on both sides of the aisle shed a tear or two as the US Senate lost one of its most famous and romantic tools; until the Democrats overplayed their hand on the Gorsuch nomination, a single Senator could hold up a presidential appointee with a filibuster. No more. Before you shed any more tears, though, dear Gentle Reader, please consider who had long been empowered with this...

As Washington people go around doing Washington things and talking to other Washington people about Washington-focused health-care reform, we would do well to take a step back to simplify the debate in front of us. We are the most prosperous country in the history of the world. As such, we have many of the best hospitals, doctors, nurses, and medicines available. We have hundreds of insurers that take risk — for profit — to insure us. We have fairly broad, but expensive and not always effective, social safety nets in which we pool our resources through taxation in an effort...

Proponents of the nuclear option say it is necessary to prevent Democrats from using the filibuster to permanently prevent a vote to confirm Gorsuch. Opponents of the nuclear option say it will not only fundamentally alter the nature of the Senate, it will also greatly empower Democrats when they retake the Senate and the White House. At its core, the debate over the nuclear option highlights the tension between the need for debate and the need for finality on judicial matters. Unfortunately, exercising the nuclear option is a zero-sum game. If it’s invoked, debate is dead. If it isn’t, proponents...

Fortunately, invoking the nuclear option isn’t the only way a Senate majority can confirm a Supreme Court justice in the face of minority obstruction. In a recent Heritage Foundation paper, Ed Corrigan and I detail how Senate rules empower a majority to overcome a filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee — without having to invoke cloture or using the nuclear option. Specifically, a majority may use Rule XIX (the two-speech rule) to shorten the amount of time members are able to filibuster. This rule prohibits any senator from giving more than two speeches on any one question during the same...

A senate rule change championed by outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid could leave Democrats powerless to stop any of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments. In 2013, Sen. Reid and other Democrats pushed forward with a rule change dubbed the “nuclear option” to eliminate filibusters for all presidential nominations except Supreme Court justices. This means that a simple majority of 51 votes instead of 60 votes is necessary to confirm executive office appointments. The Republicans are set to enter 2017 with at least 51 senators and can gain another seat with a likely win in the December senate run-off race...

Did the democrats do away with the 60 vote rule to end debate? Will this apply to The next supreme court nominee or will the dems be able to filibuster our nominee? Thanks for any clarification!

The vote to DEFUND Planned Parenthood FAILS in the Senate!

The Minnesota Senate will keep its rule forbidding members from looking at one another during floor debate and will continue to ban everyone from having drinks on the Senate floor.The issues arose Monday during the passage of the rules to govern the Senate. On a 15-44 vote, the Senate decided to keep its current requirement that all speakers must gaze at the Senate president.

If you're looking for a good laugh this week, you probably can't do better than Tuesday's White House press conference. Reporters asked spokesman Josh Earnest about the confirmation of two Obama-appointed ambassadors whose confirmation was only possible because Democrats manipulated Senate rules earlier this year to make it easier to approve executive-branch nominees. By the narrowest of margins, two people completely unqualified to represent U.S. interests abroad were confirmed to serve in relatively important countries they know nothing about. Colleen Bell, the new U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is a former soap opera producer who couldn't name a single strategic interest...

Liberal groups are agitating for another round of filibuster reform after Senate Majority Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) controversial triggering of the nuclear option last year has done little to alleviate Senate gridlock. A coalition of labor and liberal groups have pressed Reid to make additional changes to the Senate rules this year, something that senior Democratic aides say is very possible. “We strongly urge Majority Leader Reid and Chairman [Patrick] Leahy [D-Vt.] to consider reforms to floor and committee rules that will hasten the confirmation of President Obama’s talented and qualified set of nominees,” they said in a statement. The coalition,...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Tuesday that he is looking at reforming Senate rules to prevent Republicans from filibustering President Obama’s judicial nominees. “I’m at the point where we need to do something to allow government to function,” Reid said when asked if he would consider using the so-called nuclear option, a controversial procedural tactic for changing Senate rules. “I’m considering looking at the rules.” The seldom-used tactic would allow Democrats to change the Senate’s rules with a simple-majority vote. “The founding fathers never had in place in the Constitution about filibusters or extended debate,” he told reporters....

An Iowa state senator resigned Wednesday after a special investigator found it likely he violated ethics rules by taking money from political entities connected to former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and then denying he’d done so. Sen. Kent Sorenson told The Associated Press that he had already decided he would not run for re-election, and that his resignation was best for his family. He said his decision was “absolutely not” an admission of wrongdoing. … His resignation came after attorney Mark Weinhardt said in a report released earlier in the day that it was “manifestly clear” Sorenson negotiated payments in...

Reid to Senate Republicans: Filibuster deal in 36 hours or face nuclear option By Alexander Bolton - 01/22/13 03:29 PM ET Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option. “I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we’re going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,” Reid told reporters. Reid’s trump card in negotiations with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is the threat he will...

Contact your members of Congress and urge them to oppose any "assault weapon" or magazine ban Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)--author of the federal "assault weapon" and "large" ammunition magazine ban of 1994-2004--has said for weeks that she will soon introduce an even more restrictive bill. Leaders in the U.S. Senate have stated that January 22 will be the first day on which new Senate legislation can be proposed, so that is the most likely date for the new, sweeping legislation to be introduced. On Dec. 17th, Feinstein said, "I have been working with my staff for over a year on...

Republican House leaders passed a package of sensible reforms to chamber rules last week, and now Senate Democrats have offered their own rule changes. Unfortunately, Democrats trample on the explicit language of Senate rules even when professing reformist intent. ~snip! Mr. Reid is trying to adopt these changes with 51 votes rather than the normal 67 necessary for new procedures. This is unlawful because the Senate's Rule 5 states, "The rules of the Senate shall continue from one Congress to the next Congress." The 67-vote requirement, explicit in Rule 22, continues each session, including on the first day. On the...

What we are witnessing today is a power grab to advance an ideology, pure and simple. A power grab by an arrogant, condescending group of individuals who do not wish to be restrained by the confines put in place by our Founding Fathers. Individuals who feel they are superior to the greatest collection of minds in the history of human kind.

When Democrats awoke the day after the 2008 election to overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate, plus control of the White House, many imagined they would be able to accomplish nearly anything they wanted. It seemed possible that Congress would finish health care reform within a year, including a strong "public option" plan. A climate bill would sail through, along with immigration reform, the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act and an end to the ban on non-closeted gays in the military. But the reality has been very different. Health care passed, but just barely, months behind schedule and with...