Category: US Senate

Senate Judiciary sends Garland nomination to the floor

Confirmation vote could come as early as this week

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Merrick Garland to be attorney general by a bipartisan vote Monday, setting up a potential final floor vote on confirmation as early as this week.

The 15-7 vote was expected, as senators from both parties had indicated they supported Garland leaving his longtime spot on the federal appeals court in Washington to run the Justice Department.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the committee chair, said there wasn’t much left to say about Garland and called him “a man of extraordinary qualifications.”

Threats to Capitol prompt House to cancel Thursday votes

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House Democrats will accelerate passage of a sweeping police reform bill, bringing the legislation to the floor Wednesday night — and canceling votes Thursday — amid revelations of new threats to the Capitol.

Democrats had initially intended a Thursday vote on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021. They altered the schedule Wednesday, prompted by fears from lawmakers that their physical safety was at risk from conservative militia groups threatening violence at the Capitol on Thursday, according to four Democratic sources familiar with the change.

“[There’s] growing concern about threats to the Capitol and Democratic lawmakers in particular tomorrow,” one Democratic lawmaker texted. Continue reading.

Rep. Jim Jordan’s false claim that Pelosi denied a request for National Guard troops

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“Capitol Police requested National Guard help prior to January 6th. That request was denied by Speaker Pelosi and her Sergeant at Arms.”

— Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), in a tweet, Feb. 15, 2021

Though the Capitol Hill insurrection was inspired by former president Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and mounted by his followers, some Republicans have tried to pin the blame elsewhere. One prominent target is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as this tweet indicates.

We were convinced by House Republican staff to hold off on fact-checking this tweet before last week’s testimony by key figures in the Capitol Hill security during the Jan. 6 events. But if anything, that testimony further undermined Jordan’s widely circulated tweet.

(Jordan also tweeted it “took over an hour” to get approval on Jan. 6 for National Guard support from “Pelosi’s team” after a request was made. We will hold off on fact-checking that, because there continues to be a gap between phone records and individual recollections of the calls. But the New York Times reported that video indicates Pelosi approved the request on the spot once the request was passed to her.) Continue reading.

‘Three percenters’ truck at Capitol belongs to husband of congresswoman who said, ‘Hitler was right on one thing’

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An Illinois lawmaker married to a member of Congress, who was herself recently criticized for quoting Hitler, is facing his own rebuke for displaying the logo of an extremist movement on his pickup truck at the U.S. Capitol complex in Washington on Jan. 6.

A photo shared on Twitter on Wednesday showed that Chris Miller, a Republican member of the Illinois General Assembly, had a decal of the Three Percenters anti-government movement prominently displayed on his truck while it was parked at the East Front of the Capitol — an area that was highly restricted Jan. 6.

His wife, Rep. Mary E. Miller (R-Ill.), had been sworn in to her first term in the House just days earlier. Continue reading.

Josh Hawley’s CPAC speech burned to the ground by hometown paper in brutal editorial

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On Saturday, The Kansas City Star editorial board scorched Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for his far-right speech at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida — and in particular, his insinuation that historians, academics, and politicians who want to highlight the role of slavery and white supremacy in American history hate our country and culture.

“Part of pushing back against liberals, he told the crowd, ‘is reclaiming our history and saying it is good and we are proud to be Americans. We’re proud to have come to live in a country that started with nothing and became the greatest country on the face of the Earth. We’re proud to live in a country that liberated slaves,'” wrote the board. “Seriously? This is the very first thing for which we need to stand up and take a bow? Because it seems to some of us that no one should ever have tried to own other human beings to begin with.”

“We didn’t so much start with nothing as we stole what was here before we got here from Native Americans,” wrote the board. “And when we did end slavery, after a war in which the Confederacy — whose heroes Hawley defends — fought to preserve it, we were awfully late coming around. And then did everything possible, through Jim Crow laws, to keep things as inequitable as they had been. This doesn’t mean we hate America; it means we recognize reality, and see the need to learn from it.” Continue reading.

Republicans Want No Independent Probe Of Jan. 6 Insurrection

Despite all the lamentations over the Republican Party –- the respectable party that supposedly existed before you-know-who ruined everything – it would be more honest to admit that the grand old party wasn’t so grand even back when. 

To take one timely example, Republicans have always resisted investigation of their leadership failures, even when the security of the nation was at stake.

At this moment, the constitutional imperative is to investigate, reveal, and respond to the forces behind the violent seizure of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Dealing with the threat that horrendous incident now symbolizes ought to be a vital interest of both major political parties — whose legislators were nearly lynched by a ravening mob — as well as anyone who hopes to bequeath a democratic republic to our heirs. That is why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a bipartisan national commission modeled on the panel that investigated the 9/11 attacks. Continue reading.

Biden’s pick for HHS sued the Trump administration, not a group of nuns

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It does seem like, as attorney general, you spent an inordinate amount of time and effort suing pro-life organizations, like Little Sisters of the Poor, or trying to ease restrictions or expand abortion.”

— Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Xavier Becerra’s nomination to be secretary of health and human services, Feb. 24, 2021

“By the way, I have never sued the nun — any nuns. I have taken on the federal government, but I’ve never sued any affiliation of nuns. And my actions have always been directed at the federal agencies, because they have been trying to do things that are contrary to the law in California.”

— Becerra, at the confirmation hearing

Becerra was often in court with former president Donald Trump’s administration, filing numerous lawsuits as attorney general of California that won the backing of other Democratic states.

Now he’s up for the top health position in President Biden’s Cabinet, and Republican senators want to know why he supposedly sued a group of nuns back in the day.

In hearings on Becerra’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Thune and others brought up a case involving California, contraceptives and a group of Catholic nuns. Continue reading.

Rand Paul’s questions of transgender nominee were ‘obscene,’ says advocate

Rachel Levine — the Biden administration’s pick to be assistant secretary of Health and Human Services — was grilled during her confirmation hearing by Sen. Rand Paul about trans health care. The Kentucky Republican falsely equated transgender youth seeking medical care to “genital mutilation.” 

If confirmed, Levine would be the highest-ranking transgender political appointee in the federal government. 

Paul did not ask similar questions of Vivek Murthy, who was also testifying before the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday to be surgeon general. Continue reading.

McConnell says he’d back Trump as 2024 GOP nominee

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who just weeks ago excoriated former President Trump on the Senate floor, blaming him for the riot at the Capitol, on Thursday said he would back Trump if he wins the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

“There’s a lot to happen between now and ’24. I’ve got at least four members that I think are planning on running for president. … Should be a wide open race,” McConnell said during an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier.

Asked if he would support Trump if he wins the party’s nomination in 2024, McConnell added: “The nominee of the party? Absolutely.” Continue reading.

Senate parliamentarian rules $15 minimum wage cannot be included in relief package

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The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that the provision to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour cannot be included in the broader $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. 

Why it matters: It’s now very likely that any increase in the minimum wage will need bipartisan support, as the provision cannot be passed with the simple Senate majority that Democrats are aiming to use for President Biden’s rescue bill.

Between the lines: The process, called “reconciliation,” allows any bill in which each provision affects the federal government’s finances to be voted on by a 51-vote majority, as opposed to the regular 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Continue reading.