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February 2017

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 01, 2017 36 Comments
Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump's pick for Education Secretary, may have escaped her Senate committee hearing, but she just lost two Republicans on the Senate floor. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine told the Senate that neither one can vote to confirm DeVos:
"I come to the floor to announce a very difficult decision that I have made, and that is to vote against the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be our nation's next secretary of Education," Collins said from the Senate floor. Collins specifically pointed to DeVos's "lack of familiarly" with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, saying she was "troubled and surprised."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 01, 2017 9 Comments
After intense blowback and promises of confirmation obstruction for Trump's SCOTUS nominee, Neil Gorsuch, Trump suggested the Senate employ the "Nuclear Option" to move Judge Gorsuch to Justice Gorsuch. The Nuclear Option would allow the Senate to confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority as opposed to 60 votes. "Mitch, go nuclear," Trump said in a press conference Wednesday:

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 01, 2017 17 Comments
Senate Republicans found a way to end the Democrat boycott of approval votes for President Donald Trump's Cabinet. The Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee changed the rule stating at least one member from each party must attend a meeting for the committee to do its work. The Democrats boycotted the hearing yesterday to approve Human and Health Services Secretary nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin. They boycotted Wednesday's meeting, which forced Republicans to take action:
“It’s just another way of roughing up the president’s nominees,” said committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “They have been treated fairly. We have not been treated fairly.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 01, 2017 3 Comments
This week, India and Israel celebrate 25 years of bilateral diplomatic ties. On January 29, 1992, foreign ministers from Israel and India signed an agreement establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Jerusalem in June or July to highlight the significance of this growing bilateral relationship, India's envoy to Israel Ambassador Pavan Kapoor confirmed. "The time is ripe for our two countries to explore the full potential of commonality and the complementary nature of our respective economies and work in tandem for the mutual benefit of our peoples," Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv said in a statement marking this occasion. Israel's embassy in New Delhi also issued a statement marking 25 years of diplomatic relations:
Twenty-five years ago today, on 29 January 1992, the foreign ministers of Israel and India signed the agreement to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on February 01, 2017 17 Comments
Did Joe Manchin just open the door for Republicans to invoke the nuclear option if necessary to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court? In appearances on CNN and MSNBC this morning, Dem Senator Manchin blasted his fellow Dems for having invoked the nuclear option in the first place. Said Manchin on Morning Joe: "I've been opposed to the nuclear option. I thought Harry Reid was dead wrong when he did it. I voted against that. My dear beloved senator, prior to my coming here, was Robert C. Byrd and he would be rolling over in his grave knowing what we have done." That could be understood to mean: Dems, if the Republicans now use the nuclear option to confirm Gorsuch, you've got no one to blame but yourselves for having opened Pandora's Box.

Posted by New Neo on February 01, 2017 47 Comments
In his pre-presidential life, Trump was famous for saying, "You're fired!" to people on his TV reality show. But Trump's firing of acting AG Sally Yates was no reality show. In real life, an AG advises a president on the law, but if that AG refuses to enforce an order that has been "approved as to form and legality by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel," then a likely consequence would be that the AG could be fired. The NY Times reports Yates' motivation this way:
Ms. Yates, like other senior government officials, was caught by surprise by the executive order and agonized over the weekend about how to respond, two Justice Department officials involved in the weekend deliberations said. Ms. Yates considered resigning but she told colleagues she did not want to leave it to her successor to face the same dilemma.
But I would imagine that Ms. Yates understood that her successor would almost certainly face the same dilemma, whether Yates resigned or was fired. And although I grant that Yates and other government officials may indeed have been surprised by the speed of Trump's executive order, if they were surprised by the content of the order then they hadn't been paying much attention to Trump's campaign.

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 01, 2017 4 Comments
On Monday Jan. 30, Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) was set to pass into law a bill that bars BDS (boycotts, divestments and sanctions) advocates from the country. The bill would extend the ban to those who back the anti-Israel BDS movement as well as those who support the boycott of settlement goods in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. The bill has been in the works for over a year, passing its first Knesset reading back in November.
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