Taking Note: Why Harry Reid Had to Use the ‘Nuclear Option’

The Senate voted 52-48 on Thursday to eliminate use of the filibuster on executive and most judicial nominees (not including the Supreme Court).

Here's why the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, had to force this procedural change.

• One way of measuring the frequency of filibusters is by counting the number of "cloture motions" filed to break a filibuster. When Republicans last controlled the Senate, in the 109th Congress, 68 cloture motions were filed (on all sorts of bills, not just nominees). When Democrats took control, in the 110th, that number went up to 139. It was 137 in the 111th Congress and 115 in the 112th. That's totally unprecedented. ThinkProgress calculated that "3 in 10 of all cloture motions filed in the history of the Senate were filed during McConnell's tenure as Minority Leader."
• Republicans have filibustered a record number of executive-branch nominees. During the presidencies of Eisenhower through Ford, there were zero cloture votes on such nominees. There were two under Carter, two under Reagan, none under the first Bush. Then nine under Clinton and seven under the second Bush. But the current situation's much worse: There have been 27 cloture votes on President Obama's executive-branch nominees, including 11 in the last four months.
• Earlier this year, for the first time ever, Republicans filibustered a nominee for Secretary of Defense.
• Republicans have used the filibuster to essentially nullify agencies they don't like. They refused to confirm enough members to the National Labor Relations Board to create a quorum, and blocked the president's nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• Relying on data from the Congressional Research Service, Fix the Senate Now estimated that the average waiting time for non-controversial judicial nominees was about 70 days for President Reagan. It's been almost 7 months for President Obama.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Taking Note: Why Harry Reid Had to Use the ‘Nuclear Option’

Dengan url

http://opinimasyarakota.blogspot.com/2013/11/taking-note-why-harry-reid-had-to-use.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Taking Note: Why Harry Reid Had to Use the ‘Nuclear Option’

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Taking Note: Why Harry Reid Had to Use the ‘Nuclear Option’

sebagai sumbernya