Democrats plan end-of-year push on nominees
Democrats are planning a year-end drive to confirm as many of President Barack Obama’s nominees as possible before turning over control of the U.S. Senate to Republicans in January.
Republicans captured a Senate majority in Tuesday’s election, leaving Democratic leader Harry Reid with about a month in the year-end session to confirm Obama’s choices for the federal bench and to fill executive-branch posts for the final two years of his presidency. Those positions can be approved with a simple majority.
“I think Sen. Reid is going to place a pretty big premium on trying to confirm as many judges and nominees as possible during the so-called lame duck session,” said Jim Manley, a former top aide to the Nevada senator, who has served as majority leader since 2007.
The most high-profile nominee who may be considered before the end of the year is Obama’s replacement for Attorney General Eric Holder, who has announced plans to step down once his successor is confirmed. Obama hasn’t announced his choice yet. Potential picks include Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney based in Brooklyn, N.Y.; U.S. Solicitor General Don Verrilli and Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Democrats currently control 55 seats in the 100member Senate. Congress is set to reconvene Nov. 12 for about a week and a half before Thanksgiving and for as many as three weeks in December.
RULES CHANGE
The process of confirming nominees changed dramatically late last year, when Reid altered Senate rules so that all nominees except Supreme Court justices can be confirmed by a simple majority, effectively stripping the minority party of the ability to block nominations. Previously, a confirmation effectively required 60 votes.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is poised to succeed Reid as majority leader, hasn’t said whether he would try to revert to the previous rule. He has only said that his conference would make the decision together if Republicans won the majority.
McConnell has been a vocal critic of Reid’s decision to change the rule, a move he said would result in Reid being “remembered as the worst leader of the Senate ever.”
Now that Democrats will be in the minority in January, they’ll “want to confirm as many people as possible” before then, said John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California.
‘WAVING’ FLAG
“However, they have to be wary lest any of these nominees trigger a reaction among Republicans,” Pitney said. Trying to push through a controversial nominee could anger Republicans and would be akin to “waving the red flag in front of the bull,” he said.
Nominees fall into three categories: those who are noncontroversial and will be confirmed pretty easily before the end of the year, those who are so controversial they won’t be confirmed and those the administration has dubbed a top priority, said former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. He was the Senate’s second-ranking Republican before he left in 2013.
Using the new rules, Democrats could seek to confirm the third category of nominees, which could include an attorney general, “by brute force” with a majority vote, he said.
Still, “there will be some left on the cutting room floor,” Kyl said.
OTHER POSITIONS
In addition to the attorney general job, the post of deputy attorney general also is coming open, as is director of the U.S. Secret Service.
A series of lapses by the Secret Service resulted in the resignation of director Julia Pierson on Oct. 1. A review panel is set to report by Dec. 15 its recommendations for improving the service and provide advice to Obama on potential choices for director.
Obama’s preferred candidate to replace Holder, former White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, took herself out of the running, according to a White House official who sought anonymity because the discussions weren’t public.
Among the executive branch openings pending in the Senate are Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s nomination to also be an alternate governor of the International Monetary Fund, John Cruden to be an assistant attorney general, Sharon Block to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and ambassadors to countries including Norway, Hungary, the Bahamas and Vietnam.
LIFETIME APPOINTMENTS
Republicans next year may be even more reluctant to allow Obama’s federal judicial nominees to move forward because those are lifetime appointments.
Democrats have accused Republicans of obstructing the president’s nominees and point to Texas — with 11 judicial vacancies now and four more expected soon — as a prime example.
Since late July, the Senate has confirmed just one judge, Jill Pryor to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the 11th Circuit. Though Republicans can no longer block judicial nominees, they can slow down the Senate’s consideration.
“This Republican pattern of refusing to confirm noncontroversial, consensus nominees has gone on for the duration of this presidency,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a Sept. 18 statement. “I am disappointed to see partisanship and senseless obstruction continue to keep the Senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty of advice and consent.”