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US Senate Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on December 17, 2014 16 Comments
Senate Republicans are going to use their newfound majority advantage to tackle Keystone XL first thing come January, sending a message to Democrats and Washington at large that they're dealing with a different breed of leadership. Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Majority Whip-elect John Cornyn (R-TX) don't have an easy job ahead of them; even in the wake of Dems' midterm cycle defeats, many conservatives are still making their concerns heard about the leadership's commitment to taking on big government, as opposed to just rolling with the punches. But for Mitch McConnell, who has struggled to pass conservative legislation during Harry Reid's time in the Majority, this move seems to be about more than just getting a bill passed---it's about fundamentally changing the way both sides participate in the deliberative process. From Politico:
“I hope that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments, but there will be no effort to micromanage the amendment process,” McConnell told reporters. “And we’ll move forward and hopefully be able to pass a very important job-creating bill early in the session.” Among potential energy amendments that senators could seek to attach to the Keystone bill are proposals to slow or stop EPA’s emissions rules for power plants and plans to fast-track liquefied natural gas exports. McConnell added: “The notion that building another pipeline is somehow threatening to the environment is belied by the fact that we already have 19 pipelines, I’m told by Lisa Murkowski, that either cross the Mexican border or the Canadian border. Multiple studies showing over and over again no measurable harm to the environment. People want jobs, and this project will create high-wage jobs for our people and it certainly does enjoy a lot of bipartisan support. You saw that on the vote that was held a couple weeks ago.”
An open amendment debate? This is new territory for the Senate, which under Reid's control served as little more than a killing field for even bipartisan amendments.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 15, 2014 14 Comments
Today, the Senate released committee assignments for the 114th Congress, and revealed just how big of a difference having a majority can hold. Republicans are set to gain as many as three seats on the powerful Judiciary, Finance, and Environment and Public Works Committees, which means Republicans will have an early upper hand on issues that affect appointments, confirmations, and immigration. Senators new to the game have received placements that play to their strengths. Louisiana victor Bill Cassidy will continue his focus on resource development on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; meanwhile, Iowa's Joni Ernst will be able to flex her rural background on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Politico has the breakdown on how the rest of the committees will be affected:
The following Senate panels will gain two Republican seats: Agriculture, Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Budget, Commerce, Energy, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Indian Affairs, Joint Economic, Rules and Administration, Small Business, Select Committee on Aging and Veterans’ Affairs. The Intelligence Committee picks up one GOP seat, while the split on the Ethics Committee remains the same. Republican leadership awarded four incoming Senate freshman with plum spots on the powerful Appropriations Committee: Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Steve Daines of Montana. And the Budget Committee’s two new Republicans — Perdue and Bob Corker of Tennessee — will also have the additional task of choosing who their new chairman will be: Mike Enzi of Wyoming or Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the current ranking member.
According to the Senate Republican Communications Center, The assignments are subject to ratification by the Republican Conference as well as the full Senate. New Committee Chairs will be selected by a vote of the members of each respective panel and then ratified by the Republican Conference. Here's the full list of assignments:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2014 10 Comments
Watching the maneuvering to rush through CRomnibus 2014, a massive bill few have read, reminds me of how Senate Democrats pushed through Obamacare legislation on December 24, 2009. That Senate bill became the foundation of the Obamcare eventually enacted, because Senate Dems lost their filibuster proof majority when Scott Brown was elected in January 2010. The House Dems were forced to swallow the Senate bill, with only minor "reconciliation" changes. I wrote just before passage, Dems Break It, They Own It:
Equally important was the fact that the Democratic bills, regardless of which version one picks, were monumental disasters waiting to happen, as I have written about almost 200 times in the past several months. I have analyzed, among other things, the unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional individual mandate, the use of the IRS as health care enforcer, the expansion of government bureaucracies, the increase in job-killing taxes, and a host of other fundamental flaws in Democratic proposals. For Republicans to sign onto this manmade disaster would be to betray our traditions, our constitutional form of government, and individual liberties.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2014 8 Comments
The Senate passed the CRomnibus bill 56-40, and also defeated a Ted Cruz constitutional point of order based on Obama's amnesty executive action, with significant numbers of Republican Senators sided with Obama. Here's how it went down:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2014 14 Comments
The differing treatment of Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren pretty much sums up the state of implicit media bias. Compare these two headlines from The Hill regarding Warren's attempt to cajole the House into defeating the CRomnibus, with Ted Cruz's similar effort in the Senate. Warren made "her mark" and raised her presidential prospects: The Hill Elizabeth Warren Makes Her Mark
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s crusade against the $1.1 trillion spending bill backed by the White House firmly establishes the Massachusetts populist as a powerful player in Washington. The freshman Democrat took on President Obama and her party’s leadership, and appeared to inspire an uprising in the House.... Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, who follows Warren’s career, said that this week, Warren demonstrated a better feel for the sentiments of her party than her leadership. “If she’s able to succeed in the Senate at the expense of her own leadership team — the team that she’s on — it will have the practical impact of moving the center of power away from folks like Schumer and toward her,” he said. “That’s pretty significant for a freshman senator that’s been brought into the leadership. It could also reverberate in the 2016 presidential race, which liberal Democrats are dying for Warren to enter as a rival to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
As for Cruz, according to the same author of the Warren post he's just the same old obstructionist firebrand he's always been:

Posted by Amy Miller on December 12, 2014 4 Comments
Update: The Senate has managed to muster the majority vote needed to pass the NDAA. Votes are still flowing in. (Bill eventually passed 89-11.) --- You can watch the debate and final vote here, via C-SPAN. The Senate has been in session since 10 this morning, debating a $585 billion defense authorization. The National Defense Authorization Act, when passed, will authorize spending by the Pentagon into 2015, and includes a controversial lands use portion that would create new national parks and expedite the permit process for oil and gas drilling. Interestingly enough, most of the chatter about the NDAA has revolved not around defense spending itself, but around the unrelated, deficit-neutral land use provisions. From The Hill:
“The NDAA for fiscal year 2015 is a legislative hodgepodge that includes those straightforward, noncontroversial items that almost all of us support, but also numerous other provisions that are unrelated to national defense,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said. “Most egregiously, the drafters secretly added 68 unrelated bills pertaining to the use of federal lands.” ... As the House prepares to leave town Thursday night, the bill's authors made it clear it that this bill was the only chance to pass an NDAA authorization by the end of the year. “We have to pass this bill,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said ahead of the vote. “The House is going to go home and there are no ways to make any changes.” Senators on both sides of the aisle defended the lands use portion, saying the Congressional Budget Office reported it would be deficit neutral. It designates new national parks and wilderness areas and expedites the permit process for oil and gas drilling, among other things. “That is why the package of lands bills in the National Defense Authorization Act is vitally important to America.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. “This compromise is the chance for the Senate to get something done.”

Posted by Amy Miller on December 11, 2014 38 Comments
UPDATE: The House passed the massive spending bill. Looks like Senate short term vote tonight and vote tomorrow on bill: You know what comes next:
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