The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are facing what may be the most politically fraught moment since they took unified control of Washington in January. Lawmakers are battling to avoid a potential government shutdown and a default on the national debt at the same time that Democratic infighting is endangering two pieces of legislation meant […]
Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed Republicans for complaining about Democrats’ use of budget reconciliation, noting that the GOP recently used the same process to force through massive tax cuts for the rich. The U.S. Senate approved a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint with a party-line vote in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a key step toward passage […]
“Democrats in the Senate can have a functional democracy or the filibuster, but not both.” Voting rights advocates on Tuesday condemned Senate Republicans for blocking debate on the For the People Act, a sweeping pro-democracy bill, in a widely anticipated 50-50 vote that bolstered progressives’ arguments for combating GOP obstruction by killing the filibuster. The Democrat-led House passed a version of the popular bill […]
Rancor within the Republican Party peaked last week between members who remain loyal to former President Donald Trump and those who want the party to repudiate him and his continued false claims of election fraud. First, there was the dramatic expulsion of Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House of Representatives after she voted to impeach Trump and denounced his claims the 2020 election had been “stolen” […]
“Republicans’ insistence that the most profitable companies in the world shouldn’t contribute a single penny to investments in roads, schools, and our clean-energy future is simply not acceptable.” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said Thursday that keeping in place the current 21% corporate tax rate is a “non-negotiable red line” in infrastructure […]
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said this week that if Senate Democrats revive the talking filibuster in an effort to weaken the rule’s power as a tool of endless obstruction, he would speak until he “fell over” to try to block passage of a major expansion of voting rights as well as legislation aiming to protect LGBTQ people […]
“That’s what it was supposed to be.” President Joe Biden for the first time on Tuesday endorsed significantly overhauling the legislative filibuster by requiring senators who wish to obstruct to hold the floor and speak continuously, a major departure from the current no-show filibuster that allows lawmakers to tank bills with minimal effort. Previously averse to filibuster […]
“We have the opportunity to give hope to the American people and restore faith in our government by telling them that… we understand the pain that they are experiencing and we are gonna do something very significant about it,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. Following more than 14 hours of votes on nonbinding Republican amendments that often had […]
“McConnell engaged in the most blatant, ridiculous act of obstructionism imaginable, and instead of telling him that if he kept it up, they’d take that power from him, key Dems reassured him that they’d never take that power from him.” After holding up a must-pass organizing resolution and delaying Democrats’ takeover of the Senate for […]