Tag: U.S. Senate

McConnell cancels Senate break over coronavirus

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that the Senate will cancel next week’s recess to say in town to craft coronavirus legislation.

The decision comes after growing calls from within the GOP caucus to cancel the upcoming break. Senators had been scheduled to leave town for a weeklong recess as soon as Thursday afternoon.

“Notwithstanding the scheduled state work period, the Senate will be in session next week. I am glad talks are ongoing between the Administration and Speaker Pelosi,” McConnell tweeted.

 

Senate sends $8.3B coronavirus aid bill to Trump

The House passed the bill Wednesday by a 415-2 vote just hours after it was introduced

Congress cleared an $8.3 billion emergency spending package Thursday that’s intended to bolster public health resources and assuage fears as the novel coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.

The Senate voted 96-1 following limited debate on the legislation, sending it to President Donald Trump who is expected to sign it quickly. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who wanted the cost offset with cuts to foreign assistance programs, was the chamber’s lone “no” vote.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., made it clear that Congress was ready to provide even more funding if necessary, though he noted lawmakers added substantially to the White House’s initial $2.5 billion proposal. Continue reading.

Republican senators confront Trump administration officials as stock market drops 1,900 points in two days

AlterNet logoSenators from both parties slammed the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus amid dire warnings from health officials.

The Senate was briefed by Trump administration officials after Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the administration was “asleep at the wheel” as the country faces a “pandemic.”

Senators apparently did not get the answers they were looking for. Continue reading.

Senate Democrats go around Mitch McConnell to do something about Russia election interference

AlterNet logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has addressed the great purge of intelligence officials who have warned about Russia’s ongoing efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election on behalf of impeached president Donald Trump—leaving out the part, of course, that it’s Trump it’s trying to help. “Recent reports suggest that adversaries including Russia are likely continuing efforts aimed at dividing Americans,” he said, “sowing chaos in our politics, and undermining confidence in our elections.” Then he issued this bucketload of bullshit: ”Fortunately, in stark contrast to the failures of the Obama admin in 2016, the Trump admin once again appears to be doing the right thing—in this case, by promptly providing a specific counterintelligence briefing to the Democratic presidential candidate in question.” Like the briefing McConnell got in 2016, the one where he threatened the CIA under President Barack Obama with all-out partisan warfare if the public was warned that Russia was trying to help Trump win. Of course, the Trump campaign didn’t need to be briefed that Russia was intervening on Trumps’ behalf—the campaign leadership was in on it!

McConnell won’t do a damn thing now to try to stop Russia, so Democrats in the Senate are going over his head, or attempting to. Sens. Chuck Schumer, Robert Menendez, and Sherrod Brown are demanding that the Trump administration impose sanctions on Russia, an action that does not require Senate approval under existing authority. They’ve written to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking them “to immediately and forcefully impose sanctions on Russia’s government, any Russian actors determined to be responsible for such interference, and those acting on their behalf or providing material or financial support for these election interference efforts.”

The three write that “it is long past time for the administration to send a direct, powerful and unmistakable message to President Putin: the US will respond immediately and forcefully to continuing election interference by the government of the Russian Federation and its surrogates, to punish, deter and substantially increase the economic and political costs of such interference.” Continue reading.

Senate votes to rein in Trump’s power to attack Iran

The Hill logoEight Senate Republicans voted with all 47 Democrats on Thursday to rein in President Trump‘s ability to take military action against Iran, paving the way for a veto showdown with the White House. 

Senators voted 55-45 on the resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), that would require Trump to pull any U.S. troops from military hostilities against Iran within 30 day unless he gets congressional approval for the military actions. 

The rebuke comes just a week after senators voted to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial. Continue reading.

As many as eight GOP senators expected to vote to curb Trump’s power to attack Iran

The Hill logoThe Senate is set to pass on Thursday a bipartisan resolution to limit President Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran, handing the president a rebuke on foreign policy a week after voting to acquit him in his impeachment trial. 

As many as eight Republicans are expected to vote for the resolution, which directs the president to terminate the use of the U.S. armed forces in hostilities against Iran.

They are Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Todd Young (Ind.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Bill Cassidy(La.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Continue reading.

The Shame Of The Senate

Well before completing his first term, President Donald Trump firmly established himself as the worst president in American history, which should surprise nobody. What we have seen this week suggests that many of the senators now hearing his impeachment trial will join him in historic infamy.

From the very beginning of Trump’s impeachment, a majority of Republican senators have indicated that they would not dare to sanction his unmistakable wrongdoing.

The Republicans stood mutely as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the nation that he would manage the trial in lockstep with the president’s lawyers. They said nothing when the president brushed aside the constitutional separation of powers and the prerogatives of Congress by withholding all evidence and witnesses. They pretended to believe McConnell when he promised to conduct the trial fairly, and apply the same standards and procedures seen during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton. Continue reading.

We Asked 81 Americans About Impeachment. Here’s What They Had to Say.

New York Times logo“A fit of partisan rage” is how Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, characterized the bid to remove President Trump from office. The president’s behavior, in the view of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left House Democrats with “no choice” but to impeach.

But what do the American people think?

With the Senate trial of Mr. Trump now underway, we deployed a team of journalists to find out. We contacted hundreds of voters who had responded to an online survey saying they would be willing to be interviewed. We reached 81 people, from nearly 30 states. Continue reading.

Congress saw more bills introduced in 2019 than it has in 40 years, but few passed

Partisan divide and Senate’s focus on confirmations among factors cited

It would stand to reason that representatives and senators, dissuaded by the gridlock in Congress, would hesitate to introduce legislation. After all, only 105 laws were enacted during 2019, a poor showing by historical standards.

But that’s not what happened last year. In fact, lawmakers are on a pace to introduce more bills and joint resolutions than they have since the 1970s, when Congresses routinely saw 20,000 or more introduced.

In 2019, they introduced 8,820 bills and joint resolutions, 23 percent more than they did in 2017, the first year of the prior Congress. Continue reading.

Its Reputation Tattered, Polarized Senate Faces a Steep Impeachment Test

New York Times logoA partisan start to the trial stands in contrast to a consensus approach struck in 1999, the last time the Senate weighed the fate of a president.

WASHINGTON — It is finally the Senate’s turn. And if recent history is any guide, President Trump’s impeachment trial will be an intensely partisan display that will make the polarization of the Clinton era look like a bygone period of political harmony.

While Democrats and Republicans managed to unanimously come to terms on how to start President Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999, the two parties — and their two leaders — are today irreconcilably divided on how to proceed and whether the trial is even legitimate.

Hanging over the showdown is a decade of intensifying Senate conflict exemplified by ruthless party-line rule changes, constant filibusters, the Republican blockade of Judge Merrick B. Garland, poisonous confirmation fights and a dearth of legislative action as Senate leaders shy from votes that could threaten incumbents up for re-election. Continue reading.