Posted on 03/28/2019 12:48:45 PM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a procedural motion Thursday to set up a rules change in the Senate next week that will speed up votes to confirm President Trump’s nominees to federal district courts and sub-Cabinet-level executive branch positions.
McConnell filed cloture — a motion to cut off dilatory debate — on a motion to proceed to Senate Resolution 50, which would dramatically reduce the amount of time Trump’s nominees have to spend on the floor and let Republicans confirm more of his picks.
The resolution would reduce the amount of floor time that must elapse between when the Senate votes to invoke cloture on a nominee and when a final vote is held from 30 hours to 2 hours.
“I come to the floor to discuss the unprecedented obstruction that has faced President Trump’s nominees for the past 26 months and counting and to announce the Senate is going to do something about it,” McConnell said on the floor.
McConnell’s action Thursday sets up a vote next week on what would be a permanent standing order to reduce debate time for district court and most executive branch nominees. It needs 60 votes to pass.
Senate Republicans say if Democrats stop the resolution from getting 60 votes, they will go ahead with the nuclear option, a controversial tactic used to set a new Senate precedent, and essentially rewrite the Senate rules, with a simple majority vote.
It’s called the nuclear option because it’s viewed as a drastic escalation of partisan warfare.
“The status quo is unsustainable for the Senate,” McConnell said. “It’s unfair to this president and the future presidents of either party. It cannot stand… it will not stand.”
yep
Of course McConnell put this off as long as possible because he is a Trump hating rino( we all know that) but with the great Muller Report and the assurance of Trump power for the next 6 years, his deep state has now crumbled and he must climb on the train.
If he climbs on and stays on, good!
On contraire Jaz. Its about timing. Now that the Russian crap is over, and Trump is threatening to expose the graft in DC, some of the elites with skeletons in the closet will start to play nice...or else.
This guy is seriously getting on my nerves.
It’s been 26 months since Trump was inaugurated.
We still have many people awaiting confirmation.
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Well, I’m surprising myself by coming to the defense of McConnell. In the last Congress McCain, Flake and a couple of other RINOs would not support going nuclear so McConnell was not able to even gather the 50 votes needed to go “nuclear”. Now, with the narcissistic, obstructionist, “maverick” McCain in his grave and the others gone, McConnell has the 50 votes if he needs to go that route.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell is doing a great job for our country and our President. I cannot think of a better Majority Leader of either party.
Is McConnell up for re-election in 2020?? They may have also thought that they would be rid of Trump one way or another, but now realize he is going nowhere!!! These bastards need to grow balls bigger than the Dems have they have ALWAYS been a bunch of pansies!!! If we get the house back in 2020 the American people better make the right choices!!! We elected a bunch of FAKE tea party candidates and were HUGELY disappointed, Mia Love comes to mind!! There was a time when we also thought that LYIN RYAN was a great choice only to find him swallowed by the SWAMP!!! I think we need to find some young military vets to fill these seats!!!
McConnell is doing a HORRIBLE job on border voting this IS the #1 issue of our time!!! McConnell has not been able to get his house in order AND united, this NEVER happens with the Dems they are ALWAYS in lockstep!!!
Ungrammatical capitalization suggests whining and ingratitude, neither of which are inspiring. Senator McConnell is getting President Trump’s judges through the herd of cats; two Supremes down, hopefully many more to go.
Long overdue. Scorched earth is the way from hereon out. Mitch is too genteel for his own good
Tell me what major legislation McConnell and Ryan got passed in the first two years of Trump’s first term in office.
Right now he’s over two years into the first term of Trump, and still hasn’t pulled the nuclear option to stop the delay tactics of the Left.
McConnell and Ryan will go down in history as the two most foolish men in our nation’s history, passing up a chance to get major legislation after major legislation passed, after whining about not having the majority to do just that for a long long time.
It turns out, they had no idea what to do.
Can’t even come close to agreeing with you on this.
By contrast, the Demagogic Party (which invented the nuclear option) wants to get rid of the filibuster altogether, but keep using their informal "blue slips" to block nominees.
Microwave the democrat obstructionists!
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