WASHINGTON – Sweeping aside a century of precedent, Democrats took a chunk out of the Senate’s hallowed filibuster tradition on Thursday and cleared the way for speedy confirmation of controversial appointments made by President Barack Obama and chief executives in the future.
Colorado’s two senators joined their fellow Democrats in the 52-48 vote. Republicans warned Democrats they would regret their actions once political fortunes change and they find themselves in the minority and a GOP president in the White House.
At the White House, Obama welcomed the shift. “The gears of government have got to work,” he said, and he declared that Republicans had increasingly used existing rules “as a reckless and relentless tool to grind all business to a halt.”
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said he didn’t relish voting with other Democrats to change the rules, but he blamed Republicans for obstructing Obama’s “highly qualified nominees.”
“Due to a cascade of obstructionism in the Senate, essential Executive Branch positions such as the secretary of Defense as well as dozens of judgeships – essential for Main Street businesses and job creators to settle disputes and have their day in court – have seen efforts to block up-or-down votes,” Udall said in a news release.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., has advocated since he joined the Senate in 2009 for reducing the power of the filibuster, which he says is part of the problem of Congress’ dysfunction.
“Unfortunately, the abuse of the Senate’s filibuster rule by a minority of senators has been part of the problem,” Bennet said in a news release. “This obstruction of so many nominees is essentially a partial shutdown of our government that hurts our small businesses, our economy and our ability to remain competitive around the world.”
Majority Leader Harry Reid, who orchestrated the change, called the vote a blow against gridlock. But Republicans warned of a power grab by Democrats, some predicting that worse was yet to come.
“This drastic move sets a dangerous precedent that could later be expanded to speed passage of expansive and controversial legislation,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.
The day’s change involved presidential appointees, not legislation – and not Supreme Court nominees.
The immediate impact was to ensure post-Thanksgiving confirmation for Patricia Millett, one of Obama’s three stalled nominees for the District of Columbia Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and for others whom Republicans have blocked. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., tapped to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is among them.
The longer-term result of the unilateral move by Democrats was harder to gauge in a Senate that has grown deeply constrained by the major political differences emblematic of an era of divided government.
At issue was a rule that has required a 60-vote majority to end debate in the 100-member Senate and assure a yes-or-no vote on presidential nominees to federal courts or to Cabinet departments or other agencies.
Under a parliamentary maneuver scripted in advance, Democrats changed the proceedings so that only a simple majority was required to clear the way for a final vote. In Senate-speak, this was accomplished by establishing a new precedent under the rules, rather than a formal rules change.
Supreme Court nominations still will be subject to a traditional filibuster, the term used to describe the 60-vote requirement to limit debate.
The day’s events capped more than a decade of struggle over judicial nominations, in which first President George W. Bush found his appointees stalled by Senate Democrats, and more recently Obama has complained that Republicans have been delaying or preventing confirmation for his picks.
The vote adds to the list of issues likely to figure in next year’s congressional elections.
In a fundraising appeal emailed a few hours after the vote, the Tea Party Express accused Reid of invoking “the nuclear option,” and said the only way to stop him “is to rip the gavel out of his hand in 2014 by electing a conservative majority.”
On Thursday, in a certain sign that a showdown was imminent, senators filed into the Senate chamber at midmorning in unusual numbers. They listened from their desks as Reid and McConnell swapped accusations that preceded a series of votes on arcane parliamentary points. Yet there was no suspense about the final outcome.
McConnell said Republicans had grown tired of threats of action.
“We’re not interested in having a gun put to our head any longer,” he said, noting that Democrats have periodically talked of changing the rules in recent months.
Still, the events marked a reversal for Reid, who had threatened earlier in the year to change the application of filibuster rules for nominees to Cabinet departments and other agencies, but not for appointments to the courts.
Herald Staff Writer Joe Hanel contributed to this report.
