Today, the final, three-week phase of the Senate rules reform campaign begins. As the 112th Congress convenes, Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico are leading Senate Democrats in procedural maneuvering that will prevent the Senate from continuing under the procedural rules of the 111th Senate. In place of the old rules, he, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, have presented a package of proposed changes to Senate rules for the 112th Senate.
Over the next three weeks, culminating on January 24th, Senate Democrats will haggle over these proposals. They will do so both internally, and with Senate Republicans. Those negotiations will be led by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is the Chair of the Senate Rules Committee:
According to several sources on and off the Hill -- including those in leadership and those lobbying Congress on filibuster reform -- Schumer has been given, in essence, the final say over what package Democrats will introduce on January 24. This is, in part, because he has served as chair of the Senate Rules Committee but it also is a byproduct of his larger leadership role in the caucus.
At Daily Kos, we have been deeply involved with this rules reform effort from the start. As part of our efforts, yesterday we joined with CREDO Action, Common Cause and Sierra Club to deliver over 188,000 signatures in support of the rules reform effort to Senators Jeff Merkley and Tom Udall. 39,000 of those signatures came from Kossacks. Here is a picture of the petition delivery:
During the negotiations, Merkley and Udall have said they will use these signatures to help make the case for reform to their colleagues.
The reforms we are most concerned with are making the filibuster a real filibuster, and speeding up the nomination process. As such, yesterday thousands of Kossacks called Senator Schumer’s Washington D.C. office in support of those two reforms. We received reports that the line was frequently busy. This is an excellent sign that there were so many calls we shut down the phone lines to his office.
Today, we need to keep up the pressure in support of these reforms. Specifically, we need to call Senator Schumer’s office to make sure that he will include the elimination of post-cloture debate time on nominations in any package of reforms. Without the elimination of the current 30 hours of post-cloture debate time on nominations, the rules reform package will do almost nothing to speed up the nomination process. The vacancy plague will continue unabated. Obstruction will win.
Post-cloture debate time is included in the package of reforms proposed by Merkley, Udall and Harkin. However, with Schumer leading the negotiations, he is the key on this one. So please, call Senator Chuck Schumer via the Senate Rules and Administraiton committee, at 202-224-6352. Say your name, and ask Chairman Schumer to include the elimination of post-cloture debate time on nominations in any rules reform package.
This is a simple, short ask that will make a huge difference. There are hundreds of vacancies in federal judiciary, regulatory, diplomatic and law enforcement operations because of the post-cloture debate time on nominations. Call Senator Chuck Schumer via the Senate Rules and Administraiton committee, at 202-224-6352, and help put an end to that.
