Free Republic

At the end of the day, senators care more about protecting themselves and their colleagues from unpredictable, inconvenient floor votes than they do about passing legislation.Official Washington’s conventional wisdom about the Senate filibuster is a fairy tale. It is utterly unmoored from the choices being made by individual senators, party caucuses, and the body as a whole. Every person who has ever told you that the mean, nasty, outdated legislative filibuster is the source of Senate gridlock and the obstacle to common-sense legislating in Congress has either swallowed, or is peddling, a lie. In an op-ed in the Washington Post...

Cloture NOT invoked

@JohnCornyn "After reviewing the CBO’s analysis, which estimates the bill will increase the deficit by a quarter trillion dollars, and because of the failure to include my bipartisan amendment, I cannot support the final bill.”

In 2012, President Obama signed an executive memorandum that would delay the deportation of illegal aliens who entered the United States as minors. A new organization supported by Texas senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wants to make that change permanent. Formed by more than 30 colleges and economic development entities, The Texas Opportunity Coalition calls for legislation that would grant permanent legal status to “Dreamers,” the term given to recipients of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). -snip- Cornyn addressed the group in a pre-recorded clip, endorsing their plan for a permanent path to citizenship for “Dreamers.” “When President...

A group of Republican senators on Sunday sent a letter to President Biden suggesting they meet as part of his call for “unity” to negotiate the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. ​”​In the spirit of bipartisanship and unity, we have developed a COVID-19 relief framework that builds on prior COVID assistance laws, all of which passed with bipartisan support​,” the lawmakers, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, wrote​ in the missive. -snip- Along with Collins and Romney, the letter was signed by Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rob Portman of...

This year, Sen. Rand Paul's (R–Ky.) effort to balance the federal budget didn't even get a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Paul's so-called "Pennies Plan" failed a procedural vote on Monday evening when only 22 senators voted in favor of a cloture motion that would have brought the bill to a final vote. A majority of Republicans and all Democrats voted against proceeding to a floor vote on the bill. It's another sign that fiscal responsibility is all but dead in Congress, even as the national debt heads toward record highs and the budget deficit approaches $1 trillion this...

Another of President Trump's nominees to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday, as the White House continues its push to transform the key left-leaning appellate court that the president repeatedly has derided as hopelessly biased and "disgraceful." By a 77-20 vote, the Senate invoked cloture to end debate on Trump's nomination of Arizona-based Magistrate Judge Bridget Bade, a former clerk to conservative 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones. Bade is slated to replace Bill Clinton-nominated Judge Barry Silverman, who has been on senior status since late 2016 -- effectively...

Just announced, both New Mexico senators voted to destroy the US and butt lick Schumer and Pelosi. Heinrich and Udall both voted NO on Judge Kavanaugh. People of New Mexico, you better wake up or we will sink even further into the abyss. VOTE RED!!!

See vote live stream

No link from Bloomberg allowed -- story here.

SENATE JUST GAVELED IN. CLOTURE VOTE TODAY.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) showed his frustration with the nomination process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, chastising the media's coverage and saying he trusted the FBI's latest investigation.

The cloture motion will “ripen” through Thursday and Friday morning until 1 p.m., the latest the cloture vote will likely be held. All 100 Senators may agree to cut the “ripening” period short and hold the cloture vote at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, however, Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) policy director Rachel Bovard told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Basically, all the senators have to agree” to cut cloture short, Bovard said. “What is probably going on is they all want to go home. They have evening events or they have an afternoon event or whatever. They just want to have...

Phil Mattingly ‏ Verified account @Phil_Mattingly Follow Follow @Phil_Mattingly More McConnell is filing cloture NOW on the Kavanaugh nomination. Sets up Friday cloture vote Final confirmation vote on Saturday 6:54 PM - 3 Oct 2018

Just reported on Hannity.

Does anyone else think the FIB is holding the report so that Cloture cannot be done and then the vote cannot be done this week? It is my understanding that, unless Cloture is done today and is done tomorrow, they will not be able to vote on Kavanaugh until Sunday.

With attempts to attack Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s record failing, Democrats over the weekend mounted a last-ditch bid to derail his confirmation to the Supreme Court by claiming that the vetting process is so bad that it demands a do-over. ... Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, expressed remorse that her party eviscerated the power of the filibuster five years ago, leaving them no path to stop Judge Kavanaugh, barring Republican defections. Ms. Klobuchar, who voted with fellow Democrats in 2013 to trigger the “nuclear option” and curtail the filibuster, said she would support reverting to the 60-vote rule should her...

Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE!

What goes around comes around is one of life's undeniable truisms and never more than in the politics of Washington, D.C. (the "D.C." increasingly standing for dysfunctional city). Last week was Cherry Blossom week in D.C. This week it's Neil Gorsuch week. Republicans must now decide whether to use the "nuclear option," a parliamentary procedure that allows the U.S. Senate to override a rule or precedent by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes, as a tool for confirming President Trump's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. For those whose primary diet is...

Guy had post on this last month, but now that Gorsuch has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee vote—it’s conceivable that some senators might want to strike a deal to avoid the nuclear option. Yes, Democrats have the 41 required senators to block Gorsuch through that procedural hurdle. But cloture motion aside, there are a multitude of senators, Democratic and Republican, who are adherents to Senate protocol and might not want to blow that up. So, what was the deal that as initially floated last month? Oh, it was just Democrats agreeing to confirm Gorsuch, while making sure the GOP can’t...