Tag: Sen. McConnell

President looms large over McConnell-Pelosi spending ceiling talks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is trying to build a functional working relationship with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as the two tackle the mammoth task of winning a deal on fiscal spending ceilings for the next year.

McConnell says the deal is his top legislative priority after the April recess, but achieving it won’t be easy.

Democrats are insisting on parity between defense and nondefense spending, arguing any hike for the Pentagon must be equal to that for domestic spending.

View the complete April 17 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Conservative Court Packing

There has been a recent spate of attention to court packing, stemming largely from remarks by former Attorney General Eric Holder and other prominent progressives about adding justices to the Supreme Court.

While these comments highlighted the need for a broader discussion about court reform, the conversation they generated has lacked important context: Court packing is not a theoretical possibility, but rather an ongoing effort by conservatives happening right now.

The phrase court packing hearkens back to President Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to alter the makeup of the Supreme Court in the face of the court’s repeated decisions striking down his New Deal legislation. Roosevelt’s plan, which would have added up to six justices to the court, engendered significant opposition and was never enacted.

View the complete April 3 article by Sam Berger on the Center for American Progress website here.

Mitch McConnell shouted down in his hometown by angry protesters

While at an event in his hometown at the University of Louisville, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was greeted by angry protesters.

A group advocating for climate change showed opposition against the Senator.

“One protester, identifying herself as a McConnell constituent, shouted at the Republican leader: ‘If you expect our leaders, why don’t you stand with us?’ The demonstration began as McConnell praised students on campus,” a report said.

View the complete April 2 article by Dominique Jackson of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

McConnell, Graham leave room for Barr to withhold parts of Mueller report

Other congressional leaders, Trump call on attorney general to release full report to public

While Democratic lawmakers and many of their Republican colleagues called on Attorney General William P. Barr to publicly release the full Mueller report, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham left room for Barr to keep parts of it under wraps at the Justice Department.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III delivered the final report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion between Russia and the Donald Trump campaign to Barr on Friday.

“The Attorney General has said he intends to provide as much information as possible. As I have said previously, I sincerely hope he will do so as soon as he can, and with as much openness and transparency as possible,” McConnell said in a statement.

View the complete March 22 article by Griffin Connolly on The Roll Call website here.

Senate’s sluggish start reflects the Republicans’ narrow policy agenda

Mitch McConnell, R-KY., 2018. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

The Senate is well-known for its deliberative ways, but the first three months of this new Congress are off to a historically sluggish start.

When senators return Monday night for a vote on a judicial nominee, it will be just their 50th roll call of the year, and with only a couple of other votes likely for the week, the Senate will hit the three-month mark of 2019 about 50 percent behind the pace that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set in early 2017 after President Trump took office.

The slow start is indicative of a broader problem for Trump, McConnell and Republicans, as they head into the 2020 election season with a policy agenda that is fairly timid and has so far been mostly invisible in the GOP-controlled Senate.

View the complete March 20 article by Paul Kane on The Washington Post website here.

Senate GOP poised to go ‘nuclear’ on Trump picks

Senate Republicans are set to hit the gas on confirming hundreds of President Trump’s nominees by muscling through a rules change that would dramatically cut down on the amount of time required to confirm district court and executive nominations.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who supports the change, hasn’t tipped his hand on when the proposal will come to the Senate floor. But members of his leadership team say it will be taken up after lawmakers return to Washington next week.

“I think we have 51 Republicans who would rather do it with 60 [votes], most of us,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of leadership who helped spearhead the proposal along with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “We cannot continue to let this current situation be the way we do business.”

View the complete March 20 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

McConnell works to freeze support for Dem campaign finance effort

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pulling out all the stops to make sure not a single Republican senator backs the campaign finance and ethics reform bill that House Democrats are set to pass on Friday.

McConnell, a longtime opponent of campaign finance reform who battled the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over the issue, made clear in December that the House proposal would never see floor time in the Senate.

He’s continued to pummel the legislation, sending a stern warning to any GOP colleague who may be thinking about supporting it.

View the complete March 8 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

McConnell eyes Trump, Paul and reelection when it comes to emergency fight

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs the support of President Trump and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to win reelection next year, meaning he must rely on two men at opposite sides of the debate over the use of an emergency declaration to build a wall on the southern border. 

The cautious GOP leader, who routinely suffers from poor approval ratings in his home state, never takes political outcomes for granted and always tries to minimize uncertainty.

That means he can’t afford public fights with Trump or Paul, who are both more popular with the GOP base.

View the complete March 5 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

McConnell to set up vote on Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’

The Senate will hold a vote on the Green New Deal, an environmental and energy plan touted by progressives, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday.

McConnell told reporters after a meeting of the Senate Republican caucus that he has “great interest” in the plan, which would spell an end for coal, a key economic driver in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, while promising new jobs for out-of-work miners and other workers.

“We’ll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal,” McConnell said.

View the complete February 12 article by Jordain Carney, Timothy Cama and Miranda Green on The Hill website here.

GOP senators protect Trump administration’s plan to lift Russian sanctions

Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska attends Independence Day celebrations at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow in July 2015. Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP

Republican senators Wednesday successfully defended the Trump administration’s plan to lift sanctions on companies controlled by a Vladimir Putin ally — despite the defection of nearly a dozen Republicans who broke ranks to vote with the Democrats.

The Democratic effort to block the relaxation of sanctions on the companies of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska fell just a few votes shy of the 60 needed to advance the resolution to a final vote, even after attracting the support of eleven Republican senators including Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

The defeat means the Treasury Department is likely to lift the sanctions in the coming days. Treasury, Deripaska and his companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

View the complete January 16 article by Jeanne Whalen on The Washington Post website here.