Just nuke 'em.
Posted on 02/06/2019 1:41:57 PM PST by jazusamo
Senate Republicans are poised to advance a resolution next week to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to confirm hundreds of President Trump's nominees as Republicans mull going "nuclear" to muscle through the change.
Under the resolution introduced by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the chairman of the Rules Committee, most nominees would only be subjected to up to two hours of debate after they clear an initial hurdle.
Currently, nominees are subjected to up to 30 hours of additional debate after proving they have the simple majority needed to defeat a filibuster and be confirmed.
A spokeswoman for Blunt confirmed that the Rules Committee is expected to vote on the proposed change next week. Because Republicans hold a majority on the panel, the measure is expected to easily be approved and be sent to the full Senate.
Blunt, in a statement, lashed out at Senate Democrats for forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to eat up days of Senate floor time on a nomination only to ultimately support them.
“This has been nothing more than obstruction for the sake of obstruction and it is outrageous," Blunt said.
Lankford added that the resolution would permanently reduce the amount of post-cloture debate time for most nominees and allow nominations to "function appropriately again.”
To implement the rules change as a standing order, which Lankford says is his preference, he'll need support from at least seven Democrats to get the 60 votes needed.
But Republicans have also said, absent bipartisan cooperation, they could use the "nuclear" option to force through the rules change with only a simple majority.
McConnell didn't tip his hand after a closed-door GOP lunch this week but said that Republicans have their "hands full" trying to clear the administration's appointments.
"As I've said before, there is times for obstruction. I've engaged in it myself. It depends on what you're obstructing. If it's something big and important, understandable. If you're just trying to sand through sand in the gear so the administration can't function, unacceptable," McConnell said.
Republicans have for years floated cutting down on the amount of time it takes to clear a nominee, but faced pushback from Democrats and even some members of their own party.
Now, the GOP's expanded 53-seat majority in the Senate gives them more leeway to muscle through their proposal.
The measure released Wednesday goes further than a similar resolution introduced by Lankford during the previous Congress.
Under the previous proposal, only debate time for district court nominations would have been reduced from 30 hours to two hours, while most executive nominees would have been reduced from 30 hours of debate to eight hours.
Under the resolution introduced Wednesday, most executive nominees would only be required to have two hours of debate after they break a filibuster.
Most Cabinet-level positions are exempted under the proposed rules change and would still be subjected to up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate.
The Senate is expected to take up William Barr's attorney general nomination this month and has a swath of other Cabinet fights waiting, including Trump's decision to nominate David Bernhardt to be the secretary of the Interior.
The Blunt-Lankford resolution also includes carves out for roughly a dozen boards and commissions including the FEC and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Similar to the 2017 resolution, the new measure would also exclude Supreme Court justices and influential circuit court picks.
The new resolution comes as Republicans have fumed for months, accusing Democrats of using the chamber's rulebook to drag out any nomination even if it's not controversial.
Republicans discussed changing the rules during a caucus retreat late last month. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said after the GOP retreat that “there are a lot of members that would like to see the debate time, post-cloture, lowered from 30 hours.”
The proposal is similar to a resolution that passed with bipartisan support in 2013, but only governed the 113th Congress. Democrats were in control of the chamber at the time.
But Democrats have publicly pushed back against efforts by Republicans to change the rules during the Trump administration, arguing it would only add to the increasingly partisan fight over nominations.
No Democrats supported the measure when it came up for a vote in the Rules Committee last year.
We can't have the citizens expecting too many actual results.
They could have 50 judges added or elevated in the time they're going to spend pi$$ing around.
TIME is NOT a bankable commodity!!!
I’m not so sure.
Mitch and Grassley did a good job on judges considering the thin margin in the Senate plus having McCain and Flake and the two girls for the prior two years.
That may be the reason this rule wasn’t already changed.
Hey, what’s the hurry? He’s still got more than six months before his first term ends.
Gosh Mitch, you’re such a tiger.
Mitch is a large part of the problem. He isn’t going to fix anything. The GOPee Senate is pathetic.
Just nuke 'em.
Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!
I agree.
Mitch would rather fumble around than spend the next 6 weeks running judicial nominees through the Senate.
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Yep, already 10.6% of this calendar year’s days have already been wasted and he has made MINIMUM progress.
The Senate and President Trump need to get cracking to QUICKLY fill the MANY VACANCIES on US federal judgeships. Today there are 149 actual judicial vacancies including 96 still awaiting President Trump’s submittal of a replacement nominee.
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-judicial-vacancies
And there are 21 other judgeships where near-future vacancy announcements (e.g., retirements & “senior status”) have already been made. These also need nominations in the pipeline.
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/future-judicial-vacancies
I hope McConnell, President Trump and Lindsey Graham (the new Judiciary Committee Chairman) give the effort to fill these 170 judgeships the URGENCY it needs. And, of course, new vacancies accrue regularly through deaths and new retirement announcements.
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