Running the Schumer Blockade,
The GOP Senate needs to stop Democratic
abuse of the rules. 7/10/17, WSJ
The Trump Presidency is well into
its seventh month but the Trump Administration still barely exists. Senate
Democrats are abusing Senate rules to undermine the executive branch, and
Republicans need to restore normal order.
President Trump got an inexcusably
slow start making nominations, but in the past few weeks he’s been catching up
to his predecessors. According to the Partnership for Public Service, as of
June 28 Mr. Trump had nominated 178 appointees but the Senate had confirmed
only 46. Barack Obama had 183 nominees confirmed by that date in his first
term, and George W. Bush 130.
The White House has understandably
begun to make a public issue of the delays, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
says it “has only itself to blame.” But a press release Mr. Schumer sent out
Monday made the White House case, showing that the Senate has received 242
nominations but confirmed only 50 through June 30. Democrats are now the
problem.
Among the non-controversial nominees
awaiting confirmation: Kevin Hassett to lead the White House Council of
Economic Advisers; David Malpass, under secretary at Treasury for international
affairs; two nominees needed to review pipelines and other projects at the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and Noel Francisco for Solicitor General.
Mr. Malpass was nominated in March and voted out of committee in mid-June. Mr.
Trump’s State Department is barely functioning with only eight confirmed
appointees.
Democratic obstruction against
nominees is nearly total, most notably including a demand for cloture filings
for every nominee—no matter how minor the position. This means a two-day
waiting period and then another 30 hours of debate. The 30-hour rule means Mr.
Trump might not be able to fill all of those 400 positions in four years. The
cloture rule also allows the minority to halt other business during the 30-hour
debate period, which helps slow the GOP policy and oversight agenda.
Democrats have also refused to
return a single “blue slip” to the Judiciary Committee, which has the effect of
blocking consideration of judicial nominees from their home states. Senators
like Minnesota’s Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar are holding hostage the eminently
qualified Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras for the Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals for no reason other than politics.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s
troops are even invoking an obscure rule that prohibits committees from doing
business more than two hours after the Senate opens for the day. Republicans
have had to cancel briefings on national security and Russia electoral
interference, as well as scrap a markup of two human-trafficking bills.
Democrat Harry Reid didn’t have the
cloture headache when he was Majority Leader because in 2013 he cut a deal with
Republicans. The GOP traded the ability to offer more amendments to legislation
in return for letting Mr. Reid limit post-cloture debate for most nominations
to eight hours. This rule let Mr. Reid confirm dozens of judicial and
lower-cabinet nominations every week. But the deal expired in early 2015, and
good luck getting Mr. Schumer to grant the GOP the same terms.
Frustrated Republicans may soon
begin listening to Oklahoma Senator Jim Lankford, who wants the majority to
impose the eight-hour rule unilaterally. Most debate about nominees occurs
during vetting and in committees. Eight hours on the floor is enough for all
but the most controversial nominees, and the Senate could then get back to
other business.
As for the blue-slip tradition, it
was designed to facilitate advice and consent by allowing Senators to use their
home-state knowledge about local judges to better inform the White House. But
it is a courtesy, not a rule, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley can ignore
Senators who are using their blue slips as ideological vetoes of qualified
candidates.
Mr. Trump has nominated first-rate
judges, and Mr. Grassley is justified in suspending blue-slip privileges on a
case-by-case basis. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also been starting the
Senate at different times of the day to get around the Democratic sabotage of
committee work. But note Mr. Schumer’s childishness in forcing a game of Senate
hide-and-seek.
Mr. McConnell will be wary of Mr.
Lankford’s advice to change a Senate rule in the middle of the term, but the
Majority Leader rightly did so when Democrats staged a historic filibuster of
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Democrats aren’t using cloture to raise the
level of debate or highlight unqualified nominees. They are using it—and have
said as much—to sabotage a Presidency. That isn’t what the Founders intended,
and Republicans have every right to stop this abuse of process to let the
President form a government.
Comments
I am not
impressed with McConnell as the Senate Majority Leader. He’s a RINO.
Everybody says he is an expert at Senate Rules, but if he is, he’s
really a Democrat. Like 30 of the 52 Republicans in the Senate, his
Conservative Review Scorecard is low and his grade is F. He is part of the Deep State.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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