WASHINGTON – Senators this morning closed in on a deal that will likely end Democratic threats to rewrite Senate filibuster rules and force up-or-down confirmation votes on seven controversial Obama administration nominees – including three men from Buffalo.
Under terms of the deal, Buffalo native Thomas E. Perez, the president’s choice to serve as labor secretary, and Buffalo native Mark Gaston Pearce, whom the president renominated as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, would be confirmed. But the labor board nomination of Buffalo-born lawyer Richard F. Griffin Jr. would not move forward.
“I think it is going to be something that is good for the Senate,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, of the emerging deal on the floor of the Senate this morning. “It is a compromise, and I think we get what we want, they get what they want. Not a bad deal.”
While announcing that a deal was near, Reid did not unveil any details about it.
But Senate sources said the deal calls for the nominations of Perez, the Buffalo native chosen by President Obama to serve as labor secretary, to move forward, along with the Obama’s choices for Environmental Protection Agency administrator and the heads of the Import-Export Bank and Consumer Financial Protection Board.
Pearce’s renomination as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board would move forward as well. But the Senate would not act on the labor board nominations of Griffin and Sharon Block: instead, Obama would nominate new people who are amenable to the labor movement to serve in those two positions.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said late Monday that the sticking point in the talks centered on the nominations of Griffin and Block to serve on the labor panel.
Obama first named Griffin and Block to their posts as “recess appointments” when the Senate wasn’t at work in early 2012. A federal appeals court has since ruled their appointment to be illegal, which is why Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has insisted that they not be confirmed.
“I think the NLRB is the real point of contention,” Thune said. “The two NLRB appointments are really, really difficult for Republicans who believe they were illegally made.”
Republicans had also quietly blocked the renomination of Pearce to lead the labor board, even though he was not a recess appointment.
Thanks to the deal, though, the Senate moved quickly toward a vote to end debate on the nomination of Richard Cordray, Obama’s choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Votes on Perez and the other administration appointees, save for Griffin and Block, would follow, though the timing of the votes was uncertain.
Reid told his colleagues this morning that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was essential to crafting the deal that stopped Democrats from forcing a rules change that would allow nominees to administration positions to be confirmed by a mere majority vote, rather than the 60-vote supermajority now called for under the filibuster rules.
“John McCain is the reason we’re at the point we’re at,” Reid said.
McCain, meanwhile, credited his colleagues, who hashed out the issue in a 3½ private caucus in the Old Senate Chamber on Monday night.
“I thank all of my colleagues for an evening that I thought was very important in our relations in the United States Senate,” McCain said.
Ninety-eight of the nation’s 100 senators crowded into the Old Senate Chamber shortly after 6 p.m. Monday for a private caucus to discuss the nuclear option, and senators from both parties described the meeting as intense.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called it a “heartfelt discussion.”
The late-night Senate meeting came hours after Reid said he was holding firm in the vow that he made last week: that Democrats would change Senate rules on a party-line vote to prevent Republican filibusters from blocking the seven nominees from winning confirmation.
Frequent Republican filibusters “threaten the integrity of this institution,” Reid said Monday morning.
“I love the Senate, but right now the Senate is broken and needs to be fixed,” Reid added.
Republicans said, though, that if Reid goes through with his threat and restricts the filibuster on a party line vote, they will retaliate by blocking any substantive legislation.
Behind the arcane debate on Senate rules stood several controversial nominees, led by Perez, whom Obama nominated March 18 to serve as labor secretary.
Reid praised Perez as a blue-collar lawyer who worked on a garbage truck during his early years in Buffalo, but McConnell said Perez’s record shows him to be “a liberal ideologue.”
Republicans have been less critical, but no more accommodating, regarding the nominations of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Administration, Fred Hochberg to run the Import-Export Bank, and Cordray.
email: jzremski@buffnews.com
Under terms of the deal, Buffalo native Thomas E. Perez, the president’s choice to serve as labor secretary, and Buffalo native Mark Gaston Pearce, whom the president renominated as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, would be confirmed. But the labor board nomination of Buffalo-born lawyer Richard F. Griffin Jr. would not move forward.
“I think it is going to be something that is good for the Senate,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, of the emerging deal on the floor of the Senate this morning. “It is a compromise, and I think we get what we want, they get what they want. Not a bad deal.”
While announcing that a deal was near, Reid did not unveil any details about it.
But Senate sources said the deal calls for the nominations of Perez, the Buffalo native chosen by President Obama to serve as labor secretary, to move forward, along with the Obama’s choices for Environmental Protection Agency administrator and the heads of the Import-Export Bank and Consumer Financial Protection Board.
Pearce’s renomination as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board would move forward as well. But the Senate would not act on the labor board nominations of Griffin and Sharon Block: instead, Obama would nominate new people who are amenable to the labor movement to serve in those two positions.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said late Monday that the sticking point in the talks centered on the nominations of Griffin and Block to serve on the labor panel.
Obama first named Griffin and Block to their posts as “recess appointments” when the Senate wasn’t at work in early 2012. A federal appeals court has since ruled their appointment to be illegal, which is why Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has insisted that they not be confirmed.
“I think the NLRB is the real point of contention,” Thune said. “The two NLRB appointments are really, really difficult for Republicans who believe they were illegally made.”
Republicans had also quietly blocked the renomination of Pearce to lead the labor board, even though he was not a recess appointment.
Thanks to the deal, though, the Senate moved quickly toward a vote to end debate on the nomination of Richard Cordray, Obama’s choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Votes on Perez and the other administration appointees, save for Griffin and Block, would follow, though the timing of the votes was uncertain.
Reid told his colleagues this morning that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was essential to crafting the deal that stopped Democrats from forcing a rules change that would allow nominees to administration positions to be confirmed by a mere majority vote, rather than the 60-vote supermajority now called for under the filibuster rules.
“John McCain is the reason we’re at the point we’re at,” Reid said.
McCain, meanwhile, credited his colleagues, who hashed out the issue in a 3½ private caucus in the Old Senate Chamber on Monday night.
“I thank all of my colleagues for an evening that I thought was very important in our relations in the United States Senate,” McCain said.
Ninety-eight of the nation’s 100 senators crowded into the Old Senate Chamber shortly after 6 p.m. Monday for a private caucus to discuss the nuclear option, and senators from both parties described the meeting as intense.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called it a “heartfelt discussion.”
The late-night Senate meeting came hours after Reid said he was holding firm in the vow that he made last week: that Democrats would change Senate rules on a party-line vote to prevent Republican filibusters from blocking the seven nominees from winning confirmation.
Frequent Republican filibusters “threaten the integrity of this institution,” Reid said Monday morning.
“I love the Senate, but right now the Senate is broken and needs to be fixed,” Reid added.
Republicans said, though, that if Reid goes through with his threat and restricts the filibuster on a party line vote, they will retaliate by blocking any substantive legislation.
Behind the arcane debate on Senate rules stood several controversial nominees, led by Perez, whom Obama nominated March 18 to serve as labor secretary.
Reid praised Perez as a blue-collar lawyer who worked on a garbage truck during his early years in Buffalo, but McConnell said Perez’s record shows him to be “a liberal ideologue.”
Republicans have been less critical, but no more accommodating, regarding the nominations of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Administration, Fred Hochberg to run the Import-Export Bank, and Cordray.
email: jzremski@buffnews.com