Tag Archives: harry reid

the Senate Convenes at 10:30amET February 1, 2011 —Tuesday

Morning Business until 12:30pm.

Recess from 12:30pm until 2:15pm to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

At 2:15pm the Senate will proceed to the consideration of S.223, FAA Authorization.

Senators will be notified when any roll call votes are scheduled.

The following amendments are pending to S.223, FAA Authorization:

– Stabenow #9 (1099 Reporting)

– McConnell #13 (Health Care Repeal)

There will be no roll call votes this evening.

The managers of the bill and leadership on both sides of the aisle will work on an agreement to dispose of the pending amendments tomorrow. The Senate will consider the FAA Authorization bill for debate only for the remainder of the night.

Unanimous Consent:

Passed S.188, a bill to designate the United States courthouse under construction at 98 West First Street, Yuma, Arizona, as the “John M. Roll United States Courthouse”.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Lift our country

01/31/2011 Nativegrl77

In this new Congress, it is not enough to talk about common ground. We must — together — seek it.

We must enact an agenda that will lift our country from this recession and confront the challenges of this new decade.

One key group of individuals will be champions of this effort: the Democrats in the Senate. They will keep the agenda focused on progress — on growing the economy, on adding jobs. They will keep us moving forward.

In the weeks and months ahead, we must do everything we can to support these lawmakers.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee stands ready to do just that — and lay the groundwork to protect our majority in the next round of elections.

The DSCC has set a goal of raising $50,000 by January 31 to ensure they have the resources to beat back mistruths and distortions, hire staff for the next set of races, and support the work of Democrats in the Senate.

This is a moment that calls for respect and a seriousness of purpose from lawmakers of every party and persuasion.

The challenges we face as a people demand nothing less.

We must spur innovation and renew our nation’s infrastructure so that the United States remains competitive and prosperous in a global economy.

We must reform our education system so that America’s young people have the knowledge and skills to create and fill the jobs of a new age.

We must discover and implement the solutions that will allow us to stop the warming of our planet, create green jobs, and deliver security for future generations.

As this new year unfolds, Senator Harry Reid and other Democrats will lead the effort to answer these challenges. And they will be supported in all their work by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

To lay the groundwork for that kind of progress, the DSCC must raise $50,000 before January 31. Chip in $5 or more to help them meet their goal.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

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Congress … The Senate -in Session today 2pmET

01/31/2011 Nativegrl77

The Senate Convenes at 2:00pm 1/31/2011

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no roll call votes during Monday’s session of the Senate. However, the Majority Leader hopes to reach an agreement to begin consideration of S.223, the Federal Aviation Administration Act.

Unanimous Consent:

Adopted S.Res.22, a resolution condemning the New Year’s Day attack on the Coptic Christian community in Alexandria, Egypt and urging the Government of Egypt to fully investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous act.

AdoptedS.res. 34, a resolution designating the week of February 7 through 11, 2011, as “National School Counseling Week.”

Adopted S.Res.35, a resolution expressing support for the designation of January 28, 2011 as National Data Privacy Day.

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Congress… The Senate will be back in Session 1/31 -the Republican led House 2/8

01/27/2011 Nativegrl77

The Senate Convenes: 2:00pmET

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We didn’t win on filibuster reform, but three senators fought hard

01/27/2011 Nativegrl77

Tell Sens. Merkley, Udall and Harkin: Thank you for showing what real leadership looks like on filibuster reform.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6896&id=15715-2591629-a2G1Mzx&t=1

These three champions of filibuster reform deserve recognition for their leadership.

Clicking here will automatically add your name to this petition to Sens. Tom Udall, Tom Harkin and Jeff Merkley:

“Thank you for showing what real leadership looks like on filibuster reform. We support you in the continuing fight to fix the Senate.”

The end game for Senate rules reform has become clear, and it’s not pretty.

Despite the best efforts of Senators Merkley, Tom Udall and Harkin, in the near future we’re likely to see only a weak, bipartisan gesture towards Senate reform. At most there will be a few minor tweaks to how the Senate is run without any attempt to address its underlying dysfunction.

While disappointed, we cannot and will not stop fighting for reform as long as the Senate remains a place where good legislation goes to die. The stakes are simply too high.

And as we recommit to this fight, we should recognize the tremendous effort by Democratic champions for filibuster reform, particularly Sens. Tom Udall, Jeff Merkley and Tom Harkin to put this issue on the table.

Tell Sens. Merkley, Udall and Harkin: Thank you for showing what real leadership looks like on filibuster reform. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6897&id=15715-2591629-a2G1Mzx&t=9

By all accounts, the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats supported the move known as the “Constitutional Option” to fix the filibuster and other Senate rules by majority vote. This would allow Democrats to change the rules with 51 votes.

However, the Constitutional Option was only available on the first “legislative day” of a new session of Congress (a technical term that does not correspond to a calendar day).

When the Senate adjourned on Tuesday night, the first legislative day ended, and the Democrats lost their only opportunity in this session of Congress to pass Senate rules reform with a simple majority vote. Any rules changes in this Congress now face a 2/3rds supermajority requirement to pass, and nothing significant will have the votes to overcome that threshold.

The inability of the Democrats to capitalize on this opportunity is a substantive failure for all of us who wanted to see Senate reform enacted any time soon. But even more than that, it demonstrates a monumental failure of leadership by the top Democrats in the Senate.

Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer have time and again blamed Republican filibusters for their inability to move the Democratic legislative agenda through the Senate.

This was a sentiment shared by their colleagues. Just a month ago, Democrats in the Senate were so fed up with the endless abuse of the filibuster by Republicans that every single returning senator in the Democratic caucus signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about the need for rules reform.

However, a handful of reluctant Democrats (we’ve been told as few as six or seven) were unwilling to support the Constitutional Option. And Democratic leadership decided it would rather negotiate with Republicans than bring the caucus into line.

Nominally, these holdout Democrats were worried about setting a precedent for the Republicans — under the false notion that not taking action when they had the chance would make Republicans hesitant to change the rules to their own advantage when they eventually regain the majority.

In essence, these weak-kneed Democrats were willing to forfeit any chance at governance in the next two years, including giving up a reasonable chance to address the crisis in the judiciary and end the Republicans hostage-taking approach to judicial appointments. And all in the hopes that when the Republicans take power they will play nice.

The Democratic leadership faced a choice — they could whip the votes for the Constitutional Option and undercut the ability of the Republican minority to abuse the rules, or they could accept the decision by a fraction of their members to give the Republicans what is in effect a veto over the Democratic agenda. I think you know what they chose.

When push came to shove, rather than address the issue of filibuster reform head on, the Democratic leadership forfeited their ability to stop the abuses.

We now face a long-term effort to fix the Senate. Without buy-in from the leadership of the Democratic caucus, we’ll continue to need rank and file Democrats like Sens. Udall, Merkley and Harkin to join us in this fight.

And as they continue fighting, they need to know we support them.

Tell Sens. Merkley, Udall and Harkin: Thank you for showing what real leadership looks like on filibuster reform. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6897&id=15715-2591629-a2G1Mzx&t=10

Thank you for standing up for real filibuster reform.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager

CREDO Action from Working