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Senate Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” on Wednesday to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to confirm hundreds of President Trump’s nominees. Senators voted 51-48 to change the rules for the amount of time it takes to confirm most executive nominations with only a simple majority of the chamber. GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined with Democrats in opposing the rules change. Republicans are expected to trigger the “nuclear option” for a second time later Wednesday to force through the same change for district court nominations. The combined actions will result in most nominations...

Senate Republicans, frustrated by delaying tactics imposed by Democrats on President Trump’s judicial and executive branch nominees, are on the verge of altering the Senate rules in order to speed up the process. GOP lawmakers told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that momentum is building for a change in the Senate rules that would shorten the time frame allowed for lawmakers to debate each nominee. One proposal by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., would reinstate a temporary rules change made by Democrats in 2013 that reduced debate time from 30 hours to eight hours for most executive branch nominations and from 30...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) threatened yesterday to strip Democrats of the power to filibuster if they block the vote on Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. "It would be against the intent of the Founding Fathers and our Constitution to deny Sam Alito an up-or-down vote on the floor of the United States Senate," he said on "Fox News Sunday." His willingness to consider a procedural maneuver called the "nuclear option" seemed somewhat premature. Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said that although he anticipates intense questioning of Alito during next month's hearings, he...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chance of a filibuster to halt the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito rose on news he once opposed 1960s Supreme Court rulings on reapportionment based on the principle of equal voting rights, a top Democrat on the Senate judiciary panel said on Sunday. Sen. Joseph Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, told Fox News Sunday that a decision by Democrats to filibuster would depend largely on Alito's answers during judiciary committee questioning scheduled for January. Prior to the Warren court's decisions, some state legislators were elected on a geographical basis, giving thinly populated rural areas...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Mike DeWine said he would back conservative threats to change Senate rules to ban filibusters of judicial nominees if anyone dared to use the tactic to challenge President Bush's latest Supreme Court choice. The Republican from Ohio took a lot of criticism from conservatives when he helped forge a deal with Democrats preserving the minority party's right to filibuster nominees, but only in "extraordinary circumstances." The compromise stopped a logjam in the Senate over Bush's nominees to lower courts. DeWine said the latest Supreme Court nominee, veteran appeals court Judge Samuel Alito, is "within the mainstream...

Robert Novak reports Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "has informed" Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) "that Federal Appeals Court Judge Priscilla Owen will be filibustered if President Bush names her to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. "Republican senators are divided on whether former Texas Supreme Court Justice Owen is vulnerable because she underwent a filibuster for the appellate seat and was confirmed under the compromise agreement. Frist is known to believe Owen can be confirmed in the face of a filibuster. "Republican Senate strategists believe Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the only possible Bush nominee...

Senator Barbara Boxer appearing on Fox News this afternoon was asked about the 'Gang of Seven' deal not to Filibuster nominees unless it is Extra-ordinary circumstances; declared that "with the right to privacy and Roe v Wade on the table this is an Extra-ordinary circumstance and the Filibuster is on the table".Well people they just moved the goal posts.

WASHINGTON — The Republican and Democratic senators who in the spring negotiated a truce over judicial appointments appear at odds over what that agreement will mean for the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation fight. The group — known as the Gang of 14 — wields enormous influence over two pivotal questions: Will Democratic lawmakers use a filibuster to block President Bush's nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor? And if they do, will Republicans resume the effort to prohibit filibusters against judicial appointments? Senators from both parties say they hope that their deal will hold. But key Democrats in the group...

The judicial filibuster agreement reached by a group of 14 Republican and Democratic senators may be a truce, but it is not a treaty.It remains to be seen if the Senate’s tradition of up-or-down votes for judicial nominations will be re-established. And make no mistake, every tool for returning to that tradition remains on the table. As Majority Leader Bill Frist and even some signatories to this agreement have acknowledged, this includes the constitutional option.Those who founded this republic designed the Senate without the minority’s being able to filibuster anything at all. After a rules change made the filibuster possible,...

May 28, 2005--Just 22% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the filibuster compromise reached last week in the judicial nomination battle. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 American adults found that 37% have an unfavorable opinion.Among those who have been following the story somewhat or very closely, 31% have a favorable view of the compromise. Fifty percent (50%) have an unfavorable opinion.As for the "fourteen Senators who structured the filibuster compromise," 27% have a favorable opinion and 31% hold an unfavorable view. Among those following the story closely, 40% say favorable and 40% unfavorable.Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say...

This is important. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) during the press conference: Some of you who are looking at the language may wonder what some of the clauses mean. The understanding is – and we don’t think this will happen – but if an individual senator believes in the future that a filibuster is taking place under something that’s not extraordinary circumstances, we of course reserve the right to do what we could have done tomorrow which is to cast a yes vote for the constitutional option.

Senate Debate on Nominations Today the Senate resumes debate on the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The Senate will conduct its first roll call vote of the week at 5:30pm. Follow the C-SPAN networks & C-SPAN Radio for the debate on Senate rules & judicial nominations. MON., 11:30AM ET, C-SPAN2 -------------------- ORDERS FOR MONDAY, MAY 23, 2005 -- (Senate - May 20, 2005) [Page: S5714] GPO's PDF --- Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 11:30 a.m....

Byrd changed the filibuster rules four times during his tenure as Majority Leader, abetted in at least one instance by former VP Walter Mondale, who now writes silly op-eds about the danger of such maneuvers to the Republic... No one expects the GOP to eliminate the filibuster for legislation. Legislation originates within the Senate and is therefore an internal process, and the Senate is well within its power to regulate debate on its own terms for that purpose. However, the confirmation of executive appointments and treaties involve the power and responsibilities of the executive branch, and the Senate does not...

One of Rush Limbaugh's favorite jokes is about how God has a press conference to warn humanity that the world will end the next day. The headlines vary according to style. New York Daily News has "We're Gone!" in huge type. Wall Street Journal says "Markets to Close Early." Washington Post runs "World Will End - Women and Minorities Hardest hit." For decades, liberal activists and Democrat pollsters have finely tuned their rhetoric through focus groups, polls and so forth and it's curious that they don't see what's looming for them on the election horizon. Contrary to their protestations, their...

Once in America the liberal agenda and its radical programs advanced unopposed. Liberals held sway over the elected branches of government, and over the course of decades, infected the judiciary system with cadres of like minded liberals who held their goals of forcibly restructuring American society superior to the welfare and will of the people. Faced with an uncaring and unresponsive government, America’s conservative majority turned to the only tool left for them to affect government change, the ballot box. Now, as the Conservative Revolution has swept Republicans into majority positions in the Federal and preponderance of state governments, liberals...

Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen has become one of President Bush’s most controversial judicial nominees. First nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over four years ago, she has been blocked by Senate Democrats who charge she is a “judicial activist” and too extreme for the federal bench. An exceptionally qualified judge, she is now at the center of the fight to end the judicial filibuster. Barring a last-minute deal, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will use the vote on her nomination to force a change in Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster of...

Cots were brought into the Capitol Monday as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist scheduled an all-night session stretching into Tuesday to dramatize the debate over President Bush’s judicial nominees and the filibusters that Democrats have used to block votes on 10 of them. The Senate debated the nomination of appeals court hopeful Priscilla Owen for four days last week and is set to vote on a motion to end the Owen debate on Tuesday. Opening debate Monday morning, Frist reminded Democrats that he has offered them 100 hours of debate on each judicial nomination, an offer they rejected. In Tuesday's...

Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican, said yesterday that he doesn't think a compromise can be reached with Senate Democrats and predicted his party has the 51 votes needed to employ the so-called "nuclear option" that will prevent the filibustering of judicial nominees. "I just think that it is not that big of a deal for senators to exercise their constitutional responsibility," Mr. Allen said on ABC's "This Week." "I think that we'll get the constitutional option done, and we'll vote on judges." Also yesterday, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, answered "yes" when asked on CBS' "Face the Nation"...

MR. RUSSERT: Let's go right to it. The Republicans say on Tuesday that if the Democrats do not stop filibustering their judicial appointments made by President Clinton--President Bush, they will change the rules for the filibuster. What will that change mean? DR. DEAN: I think the change will be dreadful for American democracy, and I think it's going to be, frankly, very bad for the Republican Party. One of the great geniuses of American democracy, unlike most of the democracies in the world that minority rights are protected, 48 percent of us didn't vote for President Bush, but we still...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist reportedly has the votes to enforce the so-called "nuclear option" against judicial filibusters instigated by Democrats, despite claims to the contrary by Minority Leader Harry Reid. After a Thursday meeting with Senate Democrats, Reid boasted he was ready for the coming battle. "It was one of the most pleasant experiences of my entire life," he told reporters. "We walked out of there so united. We talked about what's going to happen after Tuesday," when the filibuster showdown is expected to come to head. But according to New York Times columnist David Brooks, Reid was blowing...