Republicans Balk With Delays to Protest Senate Rule Shift
By Kathleen Hunter and Richard Rubin - Dec 11, 2013
U.S. Senate Republicans, stripped of their ability to stop confirmation of almost all of President Barack Obama’s nominees, are putting the brakes on them instead.
Still bristling from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s move last month to muscle through the biggest change in three decades on presidential nominees, the chamber’s Republicans are demonstrating that they will retaliate by slowing consideration of nominees. They are aiming to clog the Senate calendar to prevent Democrats from advancing their legislative priorities.
“The Senate is not going to operate as smoothly as it potentially could or has,” said Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican.
The renewed tension over nominees risks impeding progress in a chamber already slowed by divides. Senate Republicans yesterday forced almost five hours of debate on Representative Mel Watt’s nomination to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, after it was clear Watt had the votes to be confirmed.
The Senate voted 56-38 yesterday to confirm Patricia Millett to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, marking the first Obama nominee confirmed under the new rules. They later voted 57-41 to confirm Watt, a lawyer who has been in the House since 1992, to lead the FHFA, where he will oversee the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (FMCC)
The delaying tactics are poised to play out over the remainder of this week.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/republicans-balk-with-delays-to-protest-senate-rule-shift.html
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