Tag: GOP senate

GOP critics unlikely to let up on Haaland after confirmation

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Her views on public land use in the West draw ire from Republican lawmakers, especially in states producing fossil fuels

Based on her confirmation process, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., can plan on some contentious oversight hearings in her role as Interior secretary.

Haaland is set to be confirmed Monday despite the fierce objections of Republican critics, particularly lawmakers representing Western oil and gas states.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and nominations expert, said opposition from that group is expected given that President Joe Biden has pledged an aggressive push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change. Continue reading.

McConnell: ‘We’re going to clean the plate’ on judges

With Election Day looming, traditions fall by wayside

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed Friday to continue confirming both U.S. circuit and district court nominees through the lame-duck session and right up to the end of the 116th Congress, which must adjourn Jan. 3. 

“We’re going to run through the tape. We go through the end of the year, and so does the president,” McConnell said Friday on the show of conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “We’re going to fill the 7th Circuit. And I’m hoping we have time to fill the 1st Circuit as well.”

The seat on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals opened up after the Senate elevated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a truncated nomination process that culminated in her confirmation in the Senate on Monday. The other seat, on the 1st Circuit, opened after the death Monday of Juan R. Torruella, 87, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Continue reading.

GOP Senate confirms Trump Supreme Court pick to succeed Ginsburg

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The Senate confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, providing President Trump with a last-minute political victory just days before Nov. 3. 

The 52-48 Senate vote on Barrett’s nomination capped off a rare presidential election year Supreme Court fight sparked by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18. GOP Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to oppose Barrett, saying she doesn’t believe a nomination should come up before the election. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who previously voted against advancing Barrett because of the election, supported her nomination on Monday. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) returned from the campaign trail to oppose Barrett’s nomination.  Continue reading.

Jobs recovery is slowing, but congressional CPR not expected

The weak jobs numbers are unlikely to break the legislative impasse that’s taken hold of Capitol Hill

The August jobs report showed America’s economic recovery slowing down, but Washington analysts doubt the figures will be enough to jostle Congress out of its deadlock over additional stimulus.

The economy added 1.4 million nonfarm jobs in August, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That’s less than the revised 1.7 million nonfarm jobs added in July, and the 4.8 million added in June. Economists worry that the slowing pace of job creation may smother hopes for the economy’s quick convalesce from the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus.

“The labor market recovery has slowed down a fair bit and while things are improving for some people, the hopes of a quick and complete recovery are gone,” said Nick Bunker, director of research at Indeed Hiring Lab. “Unless there is some big reversal in terms of public policy or the virus itself, we’re not going to see a sharp return to where we were before the virus.” Continue reading.

Senate to vote on scaled-down coronavirus relief package

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that he will force a vote on a GOP coronavirus relief package after weeks of closed-door talks between Republican senators and the White House. 

“Today, the Senate Republican majority is introducing a new targeted proposal, focused on some of the very most urgent healthcare, education, and economic issues. … I will be moving immediately today to set up a floor vote as soon as this week,” McConnell said in a statement.

The Republican bill is expected to include a federal unemployment benefit, another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding, and more money for coronavirus testing and schools, as well as liability protections from lawsuits related to the virus. McConnell didn’t release a price tag for the forthcoming bill, but it is expected to be at least $500 billion — half of the $1 trillion package Republicans previously unveiled in late July.  Continue reading.

Worst Quarterly Downturn Since ’29 Crash Fails To Spur GOP Economic Action

Donald Trump oversaw the worst economic quarter in recorded U.S. history, with the economy shrinking by 33 percent from April through June.

This marks the second quarter in a row Trump has presided over a steep quarterly drop in the nation’s gross domestic product, the Associated Press reported on Thursday, following a five percent drop from January through March.

Since the federal government began recording quarterly GDP in 1947, the previous worst quarter was a ten percent contraction in 1958.

In 2016, Trump campaigned on growing the economy by up to six percent per year, but has repeatedly failed to fulfill that promise. The most the economy has grown was 3.2 percent in 2018 and GDP growth fell below 2.5 percent in both 2017 and 2019. Continue reading.

Trump’s tax cut dreams hit Republican resistance

Key GOP senators oppose the president’s top priority for the next coronavirus aid package.

President Donald Trump’s demands for the next coronavirus aid package are running into a stubborn obstacle: his own party.

Asked what he thought of a payroll tax cut, the subject of Trump’s ultimatum for any new bill, Sen. Chuck Grassley didn’t hesitate.

“Right now, not much,” the Senate Finance Committee chairman said, worrying that the tax cut could drain retirement funds or leave older Americans with the view that Congress doesn’t take “seriously” the plight of the Social Security Trust Fund. Continue reading.

Here’s why conservatives really oppose federal aid for the ‘undeserving’

AlterNet logoThere is a singular and profound question that tugs at the sleeve of even the most sober analyst pondering the federal response to coronavirus. To wit, what the hell is it with these people? Although he’s since backed off the proposal Michael Gerson couldn’t figure out why Trump would decide to re-open the nation on Easter:

To be sacrilegious requires some recognition of what is actually sacred — a type of knowledge Trump has never displayed. To him, choosing Easter must have been like selecting Independence Day or Arbor Day or Groundhog Day — a useful date on which to hang a ploy.

Likewise, Paul Waldman is baffled by Lindsey Graham’s attacks on nurses: “You know, the ones who right now are risking their lives to treat coronavirus patients, and are in some cases forced to wear trash bags because their hospitals have run out of protective gear.” Continue reading.

Senate Intel chair privately warned that GOP’s Biden probe could help Russia

Richard Burr’s discussion with Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley highlights the divide among Republicans over the Biden investigation.

The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee has privately expressed concerns about his colleagues’ corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, further exposing divisions within the GOP over whether to continue pursuing an effort that led in part to President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

In a Dec. 5 meeting, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees — Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, respectively — that their probe targeting Biden could aid Russian efforts to sow chaos and distrust in the U.S. political system, according to two congressional sources familiar with the meeting.

The meeting took place as the House was charging forward with impeachment articles against Trump over an alleged effort to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rivals, including the former vice president and his son Hunter. And it underscores disagreements among Senate Republicans over the merits of a Biden investigation. Continue reading.

Trump nominee to federal court once called for abolishing Social Security, several government agencies

Washington Post logoA Trump nominee to serve on a court that hears claims against the government once argued that several federal agencies should be eliminated and that Social Security should be abolished because economic disparity “is a natural aspect of the human condition.”

Stephen Schwartz, nominated to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, spelled those ideas out 15 years ago in a student newspaper as an undergraduate at Yale. Schwartz wrote that the departments of Transportation, Agriculture and Education lack a “constitutional basis,” and that Social Security benefits were intended to prevent “outright starvation” but had become a “standard component of most retirement programs.”

In the years since, the view that federal government powers should be sharply curtailed has been central to his legal work. Schwartz, 36, has recently worked as a lawyer on controversial efforts that would have severely restricted the voting rights of African Americans in North Carolina and bathroom rights of transgender students in Virginia.  Continue reading.