Dick Durbin

Durbin: We're Struggling To Round Up 60 Votes For A Public Option

Brian Beutler | November 17, 2009, 11:00AM

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin isn't inflating anybody's expectations about Harry Reid's chances for passing a health care bill with a public option on the Senate floor. On MSNBC last night, Durbin said it would be a hard slog.

"We're working on it, struggling," he said

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Health Care

Webb Not Committed To Ending Republican Health Care Filibuster

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 9:28AM

Senate Democrats are riven, in a way, over the question of whether the 60-member caucus ought to stick together on procedural motions, to block the Republican minority from preventing key legislation from receiving an up or down vote. With a floor debate on health care reform around the corner, liberals are insisting that Democrats not kill their own bill by supporting an expected Republican filibuster. But moderate and conservative Senate Democrats tend to demure. Case in point, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA).

Speaking to constituents, Webb said that, while he's inclined to let a health care bill have a debate on the Senate floor, he's making no promises regarding his willingness to kill the bill in the end.

Loosely translated, Webb is saying he won't block Senate health care legislation from having a debate on the floor. But as for when it comes time end debate and give the bill an up or down vote? Webb isn't making any promises just yet. That doesn't mean he's a potential liability for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But yet another sign that Democrats are split over whether to give their own agenda a majority vote.

Via Blue Virginia.

Health Care

Reid: Dem-Only Health Care Bill Is Our Last Resort

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2009, 4:29PM

During a press conference outside the White House after meeting with President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid left no doubt that the overriding goal for health care reform remains passing a bill through the regular legislative process rather than using procedural tools to enact measures that can't be filibustered.

"We have a lot of work to do, understand that, but we're still approaching this in the form of bipartisanship," Reid said. "We want a bipartisan bill. We do not want [to use] reconciliation unless we have no alternative."

As we've reported, Democratic leaders have been gaming out the possibility of using the budget reconciliation process to enact reform measures that would be exempt from a 60 vote requirement. But for the time being, the goal remains to push forward with negotiations with moderate Republicans--notably Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)--to advance a bill that can overcome a filibuster and, maybe, win a couple of Republican votes.

Robert Byrd

With Every Vote Needed To Pass Health Care Reform, Byrd Returns To The Senate

Brian Beutler | July 21, 2009, 1:00PM

Roll Call reports that 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) has returned to work after a weeks-long illness. Byrd was hospitalized for about six weeks, leaving him unable to vote on any legislation. During his absence, and with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) also suffering severe health problems, the Democrats' 60 vote majority was effectively reduced to 58. Now it's back up to 59. Sixty are required to overcome a filibuster--and will almost certainly be required to pass health care legislation in the Senate.

Cap-and-Trade

Brown: I Won't Filibuster Climate Change Legislation

Brian Beutler | July 10, 2009, 6:06PM

Despite opposing cloture on a previous cap and trade bill, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says that--whether he supports the underlying bill or not--he won't support a filibuster of climate change legislation this Congress.

"I'm not going to be part of a filibuster on climate change," Brown told me today. Brown voted against ending debate on the Lieberman-Warner bill in 2007, but he says he did that because the bill had no real chance of making it to the floor, and opposing cloture was his way of expressing his objection to aspects of that legislation.

"I was not blocking the bill from having a hearing on the floor, because it wasn't gonna get to that," Brown said. "I wanted to show that I don't support this bill unless you take care of American manufacturing."

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Health Care

Sherrod Brown: I--And A Number Of My Colleagues--Would Have A Difficult Time Voting For A Bill Without A Public Option

Brian Beutler | July 10, 2009, 3:48PM

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) says he'd likely oppose health care reform legislation if it didn't include a public option--and that he'd have company. "I think a number of Democrats, and I among them, would have great difficulty voting for a bill without a public option," Brown told me today. "I don't want to say absolutely wouldn't. But I would have great difficulty voting for a bill without a public option."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has similarly suggested that he'd oppose legislation without a public option.

Brown co-wrote the public plan provision in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee bill with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)--a temporary member of that panel, who has nonetheless become a vocal proponent of the idea. In his capacity as a surrogate, Whitehouse has insisted that health care legislation include a government insurance option, though he hasn't come as close as his colleagues have to drawing a line in the sand.

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Bernie Sanders

Sanders: I Believe There Are 60 Votes To End A Republican Health Care Filibuster

Brian Beutler | July 9, 2009, 12:45PM

For more than a week now, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been publicly calling on his colleagues in the Democratic Caucus to vote their conscience on issues--but to vote with the party if and when Republicans filibuster agenda items like health care.

And, as I reported yesterday, with Senate leaders now on his side, Sanders seems confident his message is getting across.

In political terms, the Senate Majority Leader and his whip have little leverage over individual members. But this growing push--to make it clear that a procedural vote for cloture does not imply support for the underlying bill, and to force conservative Democrats to explain their decisions when they support GOP obstruction--is almost certainly necessary if the goal of party unity is to be met.

Health Care

Senate Democratic Leaders Want Party Unity Against Filibusters--Can They Get It?

Brian Beutler | July 8, 2009, 6:11PM

Al Franken is now officially a senator. And with a 60-member caucus, Democrats have the power to circumvent every Republican filibuster--at least in theory. Two members are battling serious health conditions and often unable to vote at all. And even if that weren't the case, Dems would still need to be united to guarantee an up or down vote on every bill. But that's exactly what party leaders want to see.

After a caucus meeting on Tuesday, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said he told members, "Don't let the Republicans filibuster us into failure." Here's how he characterized his position:

If they will stick with us on the procedural votes, we at least know that we can move forward.... They may vote against final passage on a bill, they may vote with Republicans on an amendment. That's entirely their right to do. But this idea of allowing the filibuster to stop the whole Senate.... We ought to control our own agenda.

Sources on the Hill have been fairly mum about how the message came across. Was it more of a pep-talk? An attempt to rally the troops? Or was it a warning to conservative Democrats, who've extracted more than a pound of flesh from the President's agenda already, and who stand poised to do so again as the health care debate moves forward? It's a bit unclear.

But there are a couple of interesting data points.

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Harry Reid

In Reversal, Senate Dem Leadership Pushes For Unity Against Filibuster

Brian Beutler | July 8, 2009, 11:04AM

As we've been reporting, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid is demanding an end to efforts to woo fence-sitting Republicans in to supporting a watered-down health care reform legislation. But that will likely alienate just about the entire GOP, and require Democrats to stand united against a filibuster if a bill is to pass through regular order.

So, I suppose it should come as no surprise that, Senate leaders are now asking members of the Democratic caucus to vote party-line on procedural issues, reversing the stance they took on caucus unity just last week.

Predictably, conservative Democrats are publicly balking at the suggestion. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told Roll Call "I'm not a closed mind on cloture, but if it's an abuse of procedure, if it's somebody trying to put a poison pill into a bill, or if it's something that would be pre-emptive of Nebraska law, or something that rises to extraordinary circumstances, then I've always reserved the right to vote against cloture."

And Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)--a stickler when it comes to the public option and, an outright opponent of climate change legislation--said "I'm going to keep an open mind, but I am not committing to any procedural straitjackets one way or another," she said.

But for his part, Reid is actually putting himself on the line. "On procedural votes," he predicted, "we'll keep Democrats together." That's a fairly dramatic about face from the position he held just last week, after it became clear that Al Franken would be coming to Washington. "We have 60 votes on paper," Reid said. "But we cannot bulldoze anybody; it doesn't work that way. My caucus doesn't allow it. And we have a very diverse group of senators philosophically. I am not this morning suddenly flexing my muscles."

Harold Koh

Koh Confirmed To State Department

Brian Beutler | June 25, 2009, 5:11PM

The State Department (finally) has a new legal adviser. Harold Koh was confirmed by the Senate this afternoon by a vote of 62-35.

That's actually a slightly narrower margin than he received on the cloture vote that ended the filibuster on his nomination. That vote was 65-31, indicating that a small handful of senators didn't support the filibuster, but then voted against confirmation. We'll track down who those senators are once the roll call goes live. Their precedent is one that supporters of Justice Department nominee Dawn Johnsen have been hoping for for months. But at least for the time being it seems as if very few of her opponents are willing to at least support giving her an up or down vote.

Late update: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Judd Gregg (R-NH) voted to end the filibuster on Koh, and then voted against his confirmation.

James Inhofe

David Hamilton Reported Out Of Judiciary Committee On Party Line Vote

Brian Beutler | June 4, 2009, 12:44PM

With all the news about President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, it's easy to forget that Obama nominated a different judge to a different court before well before Sonia Sotomayor became a household name.

Obama nominated David Hamilton to serve on the Seventh Circuit court of appeals back in March, and, thanks to a number of Republican delays, he has only today been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line 12-7 vote.

Now Hamilton will be exposed to a bright new world of procedural measures meant to obstruct his confirmation. Back in April, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said he would filibuster Hamilton once the committee advanced the nomination. "I had to come to the floor to speak so that the American people, who are very concerned about this nomination, will know that I and my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee are taking interest and are not just going to let this nomination sail through," Inhofe said on the Senate floor. "In fact I will filibuster David Hamilton."

That's the same James Inhofe who once called judicial filibusters 'unconstitutional.'

(Incidentally, Hamilton is the brother-in-law of Dawn Johnsen--another Obama nominee who's struggling to get confirmed by the Senate.)

Ben Nelson

Ben Nelson: Now More Conservative Than Ever

Brian Beutler | May 25, 2009, 1:37PM

If you read this site fairly regularly, you might be thinking that President Obama is having some issues with the Senate. And you'd be correct. Here's an abbreviated list of hurdles: Dawn Johnsen can't be confirmed to head the Office of Legal Counsel; health care reform may have to do without a public option--if it happens at all; and Obama's goal of shuttering the Guantanamo Bay detention center by early 2010 is suddenly imperiled by the common cousins of conservative demagoguery and Democratic sheepishness.

The examples are manifold. And the voices of opposition are united.

"No way I can vote for her," says a senator of Dawn Johnsen.

Seeking to protect health insurance companies, which would be hard pressed to compete with a government provider, one senator called the idea of a publicly run insurance option a "deal breaker."

And on Guantanamo, the voice of the opposition in the Senate can be summed up thusly: "I think they need to be kept elsewhere, wherever that is. I don't want to see them come on American soil."

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Arlen Specter

Specter's Slow Move To The Left Begins?

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2009, 2:26PM

When Arlen Specter became a Democrat nearly three weeks ago, everyone in Washington was extremely "surprised," but nobody was really all that surprised. Specter had been taking a beating from the right for, among other things, supporting the stimulus bill. He had lost the confidence of many in his party and, to ward off attackers, he was tacking steadily to the right to protect himself from a primary challenge he nonetheless seemed poised to lose.

So he became a Democrat. The move made sense as a matter of both Senate and electoral politics. Specter fits in just as well among the significant ranks of conservative Senate Democrats as he does among the ever-shrinking ranks of moderate Republicans, and his move into the majority renews what had been his dwindling hopes of re-election.

But then, unthinkably, he doubled down on all of the positions he'd taken as a threatened Republican. He bucked his new party on health care, reiterated his freshly minted objection to the Employee Free Choice Act (a bill he once wholly endorsed), and he flatly opposed the nomination of Dawn Johnsen, who President Obama has nominated to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

Now, though, he's showing some signs of easing up on the Republicanisms.

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Arlen Specter

In Limbo: Dawn Johnsen's Nomination Stalls Thanks to Democrats

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2009, 11:44AM

For several weeks--while torture revelations have dominated headlines and with the scandal still very much alive--Dawn Johnsen has been waiting. She's Obama's pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel--the same Justice Department shop that famously blessed Bush-era interrogation policies--and her strong stance on that issue has united Republicans against her. But that's not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that Harry Reid has not been able to muster enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster threat.

Here are the numbers as they stand right now:

Votes Against Johnsen: 37 Republicans

Votes for Johnsen: 57 Democrats plus Indiana Republican Richard Lugar

Undecideds: Republicans Olypmia Snowe and Susan Collins and Democrats Arlen Specter and Ben Nelson

Reid frames the issue by saying he needs a couple Republicans to cross the line before he has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. But as the numbers show, it's just as much an issue of Reid not being able to muster the entire Democratic caucus in support of Johnsen.

The nomination isn't dead yet, but with Reid trying to put the onus on the White House to shore up support for the beleaguered nominee and the White House staying mum about what it role in all this is, or should be, Johnsen's nomination isnt going anywhere fast.

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Arlen Specter

What Democrats' Inability To Move Johnsen Forward Says About Democrats

Brian Beutler | May 13, 2009, 5:54PM

Greg Sargent gets the answers from Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) that I've been seeking for weeks. The two both say they remain undecided about the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that he'd need "a couple" Republicans to cross the line before he could move Johnsen's confirmation to the floor, as Greg notes, this suggests her nomination's simply stalled--not dead in the water.

But here's the corollary to that.

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Department of Interior

Why Did Republicans Filibuster David Hayes?

Brian Beutler | May 13, 2009, 4:04PM

Earlier today Republicans blocked the confirmation of David Hayes, President Obama's Deputy Interior Secretary-designate. Hayes isn't a controversial nominee. He's served in that very position once before and his credentials aren't really questioned by either party.

So why was he filibustered?

As explained in this post, Republicans decided to oppose the nomination (at least for now) out of solidarity with Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) who placed a hold on Hayes several weeks ago. Holds, though not binding, are generally respected in the Senate, but a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that Reid decided to try and move the nomination forward anyhow, having grown tired of Republicans' slow-walking the nomination.

So why did Bennett place the hold in the first place?

A number of reports today suggest that the controversy has to do with the Obama Interior Department's decision to cancel oil and gas leases in Utah, sold off during the last days of the Bush administration. Here's a bit more detail:

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David Hayes

Hayes Cloture Vote--Where Were Three Key Democrats?

Brian Beutler | May 13, 2009, 12:34PM

As I reported below, Senate Republicans have blocked, for now, the confirmation of David Hayes as Undersecretary for the Interior. The vote was 57-39, with Reid voting with the minority for procedural reasons. Here's the roll call. Sixty votes were required to move the nomination forward.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted for cloture. Presumably for procedural reasons, so did Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), the Senate Minority Whip. But Sens. Kerry (D-MA), Kennedy (D-MA), and Mikulski (D-MD) didn't vote at all. If they'd been around this morning, the Democrats might have had the votes. Kennedy has missed a number of votes for health reasons, but where were Kerry and Mikulski?

Late update: Kerry is apparently in Massachusetts at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.

Republicans

Republicans Filibuster Obama Interior Department Nominee

Brian Beutler | May 13, 2009, 11:53AM

The Republicans have filibustered the nomination of David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior. The move comes after Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) had put a hold on Hayes, supposedly because of the Obama Interior Department's decision to cancel oil and gas leases in Utah.

Holds, though, are informal--honored as a matter of courtesy within the Senate--and it seems like what happened is that the GOP blocked cloture in order to ensure that Bennett's hold wasn't ignored. We'll have more for you on that later today, but Bennett himself has said he'd lift the hold and vote for Hayes if and when the Interior Department addresses the cancellation of those leases.

The final tally was 57-39, with 60 votes required to end debate. CNN reported that if Hayes' nomination couldn't overcome this procedural hurdle, it would fail. But that's not necessarily true. Among the 39 senators voting to filibuster Hayes was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid--not, of course, because he opposes Hayes, but because it keeps Hayes' chances alive. That vote will allow him to bring the issue back to the floor at a later date when, presumably, the conflict is resolved.

Dawn Johnsen

Reid Admits It: 'I Don't Have Votes For Johnsen...Yet'

Brian Beutler | May 13, 2009, 9:02AM

It's been clear for weeks now that Senate leadership hadn't brought the question of confirming Dawn Johnsen--the President's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel--to a vote on the floor because he hasn't had the votes. Sen. Harry Reid's office never said as much, but how else to explain that other, less critical nominations were moving and not hers?

Last night Reid made it explicit. "Right now we're finding out when to do that," Reid said, according to Roll Call. "We need a couple Republican votes until we can get to 60."

Right now there are 59 Democrats in the caucus. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has said he's "concerned" about her nomination, but his office strongly suggested to me that he'd vote for cloture on her confirmation. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has said he "opposes" Johnsen, but hasn't answered the cloture question thusfar. Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), though, says he supports her. Assuming Nelson's cloture vote really will be there, but that Specter will continue his...unpredictable streak, that means Democrats need one more Republican to get behind her.

For what it's worth, the Senators from Maine haven't responded to my repeated requests for comment on this question.

Judd Gregg

An Accidental Moment Of Candor From Judd Gregg: With Franken Tied Up, 'We Can Do A Lot With 40 Votes'

Brian Beutler | May 12, 2009, 12:25PM

A Congressional Quarterly article about GOP efforts to get conservative Democrats to oppose major legislation contains an interesting admission from Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).

Acording to the piece, Republicans "have vowed to block, reshape or defeat a number of Democratic initiatives in coming months, even though Specter's defection has left the Senate Republican caucus with just 40 members."

But in a 99-member Senate, 40 votes are enough to keep Democrats from cutting off debate on major legislation. "Usually you need 41 votes to get anything done around here. But right now, you can do a lot with 40 votes,'' said Judd Gregg

In a 99-seat Senate, 40 votes isn't nearly enough to "get anything done." Not at all. It is rather the bare minimum necessary to make sure nothing gets done. And it explains why so many Republican senators will routinely vote against cloture on major Democratic agenda items. It's called a filibuster--and it isn't typically thought of as way to "get stuff done."

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