Free Republic

President Trump’s allies are planning to take over the Senate floor this week in a bid to pass the SAVE America Act, setting up a major test for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) who is under pressure from Trump and the MAGA base to extend the debate over voting reform for as long as possible. GOP senators are playing their cards close to the vest ahead of this week’s marathon debate over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which would require people registering to vote to show documented proof of citizenship. But they’re bracing for long hours...

Nuking the filibuster is unprincipled, but it also makes little political sense: Trump would be doing Democrats a huge favor by greasing the wheels for exploiting fleeting one-party national majorities in the future, which will allow them to shove through massive generational “reforms” without any national consensus. And they would be able to do it without taking any political heat for nuking the filibuster. In recent years, they’ve coalesced around an argument that says the 60-vote threshold to cut off debate in the Senate is antiquated — a “Jim Crow relic,” said one-time filibuster champion former President Barack Obama —...

Capitol Police arrested a staffer for Sen. Cory Booker who was carrying a gun Monday evening, hours after the New Jersey Democrat kicked off a marathon “filibuster” speech in the upper chamber. “Yesterday afternoon a Member of Congress led an IDed staff member around security screening at the Hart Senate Office Building. Later that evening, outside the Senate Galleries, the IDed staff member — who is a retired law enforcement officer — told our officers he was armed,” a rep for US Capitol Police said in a statement Tuesday. “The staff member, 59-year-old Kevin A. Batts of New Jersey, was...

Senator Thune! Schedule the votes and call the roll. Stop INTENTIONALLY dragging your feet.

Democrats confirmed two more Biden judicial nominees to lifetime posts Wednesday in narrow votes, in part due to the absences of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Braun (R-IN). If the two senators had voted, the nominees would not have been cleared Wednesday because Vice President Kamala Harris would have been unavailable to break the 50-50 tie.

Chuck Schumer just confirmed another lifelong federal judge by a vote of 50-49 because Republican Senator Mike Braun did not show up to vote. This judge will now forever serve on the D.C. court. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is voting with the Republicans to block the nomination, and Kamala Harris is out of town and can't cast the tie-breaking vote. Yet we still can't get Republicans to stand up and fight. ... Senator Mike Braun knows exactly what he’s doing with his absence. He’s voting as a Democrat. ... So why is RINO Braun in the Republican party since...

At the end of the day, senators care more about protecting themselves and their colleagues from unpredictable, inconvenient floor votes than they do about passing legislation.Official Washington’s conventional wisdom about the Senate filibuster is a fairy tale. It is utterly unmoored from the choices being made by individual senators, party caucuses, and the body as a whole. Every person who has ever told you that the mean, nasty, outdated legislative filibuster is the source of Senate gridlock and the obstacle to common-sense legislating in Congress has either swallowed, or is peddling, a lie. In an op-ed in the Washington Post...

Cloture NOT invoked

@JohnCornyn "After reviewing the CBO’s analysis, which estimates the bill will increase the deficit by a quarter trillion dollars, and because of the failure to include my bipartisan amendment, I cannot support the final bill.”

In 2012, President Obama signed an executive memorandum that would delay the deportation of illegal aliens who entered the United States as minors. A new organization supported by Texas senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wants to make that change permanent. Formed by more than 30 colleges and economic development entities, The Texas Opportunity Coalition calls for legislation that would grant permanent legal status to “Dreamers,” the term given to recipients of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). -snip- Cornyn addressed the group in a pre-recorded clip, endorsing their plan for a permanent path to citizenship for “Dreamers.” “When President...

A group of Republican senators on Sunday sent a letter to President Biden suggesting they meet as part of his call for “unity” to negotiate the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. ​”​In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a COVID-19 relief framework that builds on prior COVID assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support​,” the lawmakers, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, wrote​ in the missive. -snip- Along with Collins and Romney, the letter was signed by Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rob Portman of...

This year, Sen. Rand Paul's (R–Ky.) effort to balance the federal budget didn't even get a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Paul's so-called "Pennies Plan" failed a procedural vote on Monday evening when only 22 senators voted in favor of a cloture motion that would have brought the bill to a final vote. A majority of Republicans and all Democrats voted against proceeding to a floor vote on the bill. It's another sign that fiscal responsibility is all but dead in Congress, even as the national debt heads toward record highs and the budget deficit approaches $1 trillion this...

Another of President Trump's nominees to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday, as the White House continues its push to transform the key left-leaning appellate court that the president repeatedly has derided as hopelessly biased and "disgraceful." By a 77-20 vote, the Senate invoked cloture to end debate on Trump's nomination of Arizona-based Magistrate Judge Bridget Bade, a former clerk to conservative 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones. Bade is slated to replace Bill Clinton-nominated Judge Barry Silverman, who has been on senior status since late 2016 -- effectively...

Just announced, both New Mexico senators voted to destroy the US and butt lick Schumer and Pelosi. Heinrich and Udall both voted NO on Judge Kavanaugh. People of New Mexico, you better wake up or we will sink even further into the abyss. VOTE RED!!!

See vote live stream

No link from Bloomberg allowed -- story here.

SENATE JUST GAVELED IN. CLOTURE VOTE TODAY.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) showed his frustration with the nomination process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, chastising the media's coverage and saying he trusted the FBI's latest investigation.

The cloture motion will “ripen” through Thursday and Friday morning until 1 p.m., the latest the cloture vote will likely be held. All 100 Senators may agree to cut the “ripening” period short and hold the cloture vote at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, however, Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) policy director Rachel Bovard told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Basically, all the senators have to agree” to cut cloture short, Bovard said. “What is probably going on is they all want to go home. They have evening events or they have an afternoon event or whatever. They just want to have...

Phil Mattingly ‏ Verified account @Phil_Mattingly Follow Follow @Phil_Mattingly More McConnell is filing cloture NOW on the Kavanaugh nomination. Sets up Friday cloture vote Final confirmation vote on Saturday 6:54 PM - 3 Oct 2018