Reid Runs The Table On Political Appointments | Senate Passed Fiscal Year 2015 Omnibus Appropriations Bill
Harry Reid is still the Senate Leader until this session of Congress recesses. Keeps Senate in session voting on approval of Obama nominees subject to approval using the Nuclear option. |
The House is in recess.
The Senate reconvened today at 10 AM today and resumed executive session to consider nominations.
Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) knowing that he will not be the Senate Majority Leader when the Senate convenes in January, 2014, is running the table on political appointment by rushing through every Obama political appointment possible while Reid has the use of the nuclear option - forcing confirming candidates even if supported by less than 60 votes. On Saturday, Reid filed cloture on 23 nominations.
At 5:30 PM, the Senate will vote on cloture on three nominees. The first is the controversial nomination of Vivek Murthy to be surgeon general. If cloture is invoked on his nomination, a confirmation vote will be held immediately thereafter. Following that vote, the Senate will vote on cloture on the nominations of Daniel Santos to be a member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and Frank Rose to be an assistant Secretary of State.
If cloture is invoked on those two nominees, confirmation votes will be held on them tomorrow morning.
Friday night, the Senate voted 18-82 against a motion offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to refer H.R. 3979 back to committee to be reported back with an amendment striking a package of lands provisions in the bill. The Senate then voted 89-11 to agree to the House amendment to H.R. 3979, the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Authorization bill, clearing it for the president’s signature. Following that vote, the Senate voted 62-35 to confirm the nomination of David Saperstein to be Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.
The Senate voted 77-19 to invoke cloture on the House amendment to H.R. 83, the Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill. Following that vote, senators voted 22-74 that a constitutional point of order against the bill was not well taken. The Senate then voted 56-40 to concur in the House amendment to H.R. 83, sending the bill to the president for his signature.
Bloomberg Politics’ Annie Linskey writes today, “President Barack Obama in 2008 pledged to blunt the power of big money interests in politics. Instead . . . [t]he president's abandonment of good-government groups on the issue of campaign finance will reach a new peak this week when he signs the so-called cromnibus legislation . . . .
“The bill, which Obama urged Democrats to pass, also lifts campaign contribution limits to party organizations allowing fundraisers to hit up donors for just under $1.6 million in each two-year election cycle, up from the current $260,000 limit. . . .
“‘He did literally nothing in the whole of his administration to address either the way congressional elections are funded or how presidential elections are funded,’ said Larry Lessig, a Harvard Law professor whose super-PAC spent $10 million this year trying to elect candidates who support limiting the influence of money in campaigns. ‘He hasn't even floated an idea.’”
She notes that campaign finance reform proponents “have spent the past few years tallying Obama's offenses on the subject of limiting the influence of money on politics,” beginning with the Obama campaign turning down public funding in 2008.They also note the president “cast off his prior criticism of [super PACs] as a distortion of the election process and sanctioned one to help him get re-elected.” In addition, they say, “Obama also campaigned against the corrosive influence of special interests, signing an executive order on his first day in office decreeing lobbyists couldn't work in his administration. The administration issu[ed] a number of waivers to the rule. It then changed course in August of this year after losing a court battle and allowed lobbyists to work on government advisory boards in some circumstances. Many in the lobbying community found a way around the rules altogether . . . .”
Linskey continues, “Signing the cromnibus bill adds to the grievances. . . . The campaign finance measure includes a rider allowing increased donations to fund party conventions—a provision with roots in a bipartisan bill that passed a year ago against the wishes of the campaign-finance reform community.”
Democrats have long been hypocrites on money in politics, denouncing things like super PACs, outside groups, and big money donors while turning around and enjoying the benefits of free political speech as President Obama has done.
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this year as Democrats tried again to limit political speech, “Collectively and individually, these continual efforts to weaken voter participation in our elections poses a real threat to the right of free speech in this country, something which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights and which has ensured the integrity of the political process in this country for more than two centuries. . . . We shouldn't be trying to think of ways to keep people from participating in the political process. We should be encouraging more of it. As veteran columnist George Will has noted, the political process is not some private club in which the parties and candidates control membership.” Yet that is frequently the result of “campaign finance reform” that limits free political speech.
Democrats enjoy the benefits of it, and they’d do well to stop attempting to limit it for others.
Tags: Harry Reid, presidential nominees, Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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