It's Wednesday, May 18 and Day 95 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 63 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
They have to recover from doing two things yesterday: They finally confirmed new Army Secretary Eric Fanning, who had only been waiting for a vote since September. And they voted to half-fund a Zika response. Democrats knew that half a loaf of funding was better than nothing, so voted with most Republicans to fund $1.1 billion for responding to Zika, though that's just over half what the CDC and other health agencies say is necessary. The funding passed as an amendment to a spending bill—Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017 and for the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017. Yeah, that's all mushed together.
With that big of a spending bill moving, you know there's trouble brewing, trouble that will at the very least drag out the process of getting this "emergency" spending for Zika in place (and this is just on the Senate side, not even considering the House which absolutely refuses to acknowledge this is a crisis and won't go over $600 million in funding). A funding bill this big is a "poison pill" magnet. Who knows how long this will drag out? There's already been one fight involving Sen. Chuck Grassley, who tried to bring gun control into the mix by not allowing the Department of Veterans Affairs to report veterans with mental illnesses to the National Instant Background Check System. Democrat Dick Durbin blocked the amendment. Who knows how many more of these are in the wings?
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee under Grassley took up some nominations, few or none of which are likely to end up with an actual floor vote. Because Mitch McConnell's Senate doesn't do that.
Please donate $3 today to help turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.