Mitch McConnell congratulates Joe Biden, Kamala Harris for election win

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recognized former Vice President Joe Biden as the president-elect for the first time Tuesday, one day after the Democratic ticket sealed an Electoral College victory. 

“The Electoral College has spoken,” McConnell said during a speech on the Senate floor in which he also praised President Donald Trump’s accomplishments. McConnell said he wanted to “congratulate President-elect Joe Biden” and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“The President-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He has devoted himself to public service for many years,” McConnell said of Biden. 

Window quickly closing for big coronavirus deal

The Hill logo

Congress is quickly running out of time to cut a year-end deal on a big coronavirus relief package, with only a matter of days left before the next funding deadline.

Lawmakers have been holding talks for weeks but are struggling to close the gap on the biggest issues — state and local aid and legal protections for businesses from coronavirus lawsuits — even as pressure grows for more resources to prevent a sustained spike in COVID-19 cases and cities reimpose restrictions.

There’s now growing skepticism about the prospects for a sweeping agreement. With the clock ticking, lawmakers are warning there are too many moving parts and too many competing factions. Continue reading.

Mitch McConnell doesn’t even want to send relief to health care workers

Hospitals nationwide are in desperate financial straits, short-staffed, and running out of beds.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding up talks on a bipartisan bill that could include badly needed aid for hard-hit hospitals around the country with demands that Democrats give up state and local relief funding before he’ll let the Senate vote on it.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for talks on the developing framework for a $908 billion COVID relief package that would include $35 billion for hospitals.

The initial summary of the bill did not include stimulus checks for individuals, though negotiations continue on that front. Continue reading.

‘One person standing in the way’: Abysmal jobs report ramps up pressure on McConnell for COVID relief

AlterNet logo

The Labor Department’s release Friday of an abysmal jobs report showing that U.S. hiring slowed dramatically in November served as another occasion for Democratic lawmakers, progressive advocacy groups, and economists to demand that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell end his months-long obstruction of a desperately needed coronavirus relief package.

Devoid of any “silver linings”, the fresh jobs numbers further undercut the Kentucky Republican’s argument just last month that the economy is trending in the right direction and therefore requires less stimulus to drag it out of recessionary territory. According to Friday’s report, the U.S. added just 245,000 jobs in November, down from 610,000 in October and the fifth consecutive month hiring has slowed.

“Congress knows how to help workers and families. It knows how to prevent the looming recession. One person is standing in the way. Mitch McConnell’s political games are costing lives and livelihoods.”

Sen. Ron Wyden

Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, warned that with key federal unemployment programs set to expire at the end of December and coronavirus infections on the rise nationwide, “millions of workers and their families are in for an even harsher winter” unless Congress takes decisive action. Continue reading.

Pelosi bullish on COVID-19 relief: ‘We cannot leave without it’

The Hill logo

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed optimism Friday that the parties will come together to secure a coronavirus relief package before Congress leaves Washington for the winter holidays.

Addressing reporters in the Capitol, the Speaker said party negotiators still have a number of disagreements to iron out to win such an agreement, but indicated the sides are making steady progress and all but guaranteed that a bipartisan deal will be sealed in the coming days.

“We’ll take the time we need and we must get it done,” Pelosi said. “We cannot leave without it.” Continue reading.

McConnell, Schumer spar as pressure grows for coronavirus deal

The Hill logo

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sparred over coronavirus relief on Thursday as pressure grows for leadership to cut a deal.  

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, said he believed a deal on coronavirus relief was “within reach,” but didn’t embrace a bipartisan proposal gaining steam within his own caucus.  

McConnell argued Congress should pass a coronavirus relief bill that covers areas on which both sides agree, including more small business aid through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and extending soon-to-expire programs created through the March CARES Act.  Continue reading.

A Senate insider has a dark warning about Mitch McConnell

AlterNet logo

Democrat Adam Jentleson can recite chapter and verse about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bitter partisanship: he served as deputy chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the Obama years. And in an interview with New York Magazine, Jentleson has a warning for President-elect Joe Biden: expect the worst from McConnell.

Jentleson discusses the state of the U.S. Senate in his upcoming book, “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.” It remains to be seen whether McConnell will be Senate majority leader or Senate minority leader in 2021 — that will be determined by what happens in the two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. And when New York Magazine’s Ben Jacobs asked Jentleson, during the interview, “how important” the outcome of those Senate races will be for Biden’s incoming administration, he replied, “It’s all the difference in the world.”

Jentleson told Jacobs, “It is night and day. That ranges from prospects for passing legislation and having his nominees confirmed to who controls the committees and the day-to-day business and sets the agenda of the Senate. So, it’s two seats that could lead to two very different prospects for Joe Biden when he is inaugurated in January.” Continue reading.

Trump lost, but the Senate keeps confirming his nominees

Lame-duck presidents usually don’t get this treatment

Less than two months remain in the Trump administration, and Senate Republicans are doing something not seen in a century — confirming judges and other nominees after their party lost the White House. That norm-breaking rush to get GOP-approved picks through could get tricky, though, if lawmakers continue missing time because of COVID-19.

With only one exception, post-election confirmations of judges nominated to lifetime appointments by a president whose party has lost the White House hasn’t happened since the election of 1896 when William McKinley was elected and the Senate confirmed Grover Cleveland’s picks.

So far in this lame-duck session, the Senate has confirmed six nominees to U.S. district courts and one to the Court of International Trade, starting on Nov. 10 and before leaving town on Nov. 18. Continue reading.

How Mitch McConnell’s do nothing Republicans are killing you: Robert Reich

AlterNet logo

The Senate adjourned and left town without even trying to pass a COVID disaster relief bill. By the time they return on November 30, based on current trends, an additional estimated 16,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19.

We pay these elected officials to keep us safe, and they’ve failed us. To them I ask: How much death and suffering must the American people endure before you act?

Remember: House Democrats passed a comprehensive relief bill all the way back in May

You, Mitch McConnell, have refused to lift a finger for months, and Senate Republicans have been happy to follow your lead. Continue reading.

Republicans seek to stymie Biden with final Trump nominees

The Senate GOP is working to stock the government with conservative appointments in the lame duck.

Two months before Joe Biden assumes the presidency, Senate Republicans are racing to install a series of conservative nominees that will outlast Donald Trump.

While Trump still refuses to concede the election, the Senate GOP is moving quickly to ensure that the president’s stamp sticks to the Federal Elections Commission, Federal Reserve Board, the federal judiciary and beyond.

The effort played out in dramatic fashion this week, as Senate Republicans tried to muscle Judy Shelton onto the Fed by the narrowest of margins but fell short amid senators’ absences from the coronavirus. They’re also plotting a confirmation vote for Christopher Waller, Trump’s less controversial Fed pick. Continue reading.