1margd
Kyle Griffin (MSNBC) @kylegriffin1 | 8:00 AM · Dec 8, 2021
Cruz blocked another Biden nominee:
Republican Ted Cruz objected to a Democratic request to unanimously confirm Rufus Gifford as chief of protocol at the State Department. Under President Obama, Gifford was confirmed unanimously by the Senate as Ambassador to Denmark.
______________________________________________
Opinion: With hundreds of nominees to confirm, the Senate doesn’t deserve Thanksgiving break
Fred Hiatt, (WaPo) Editorial page editor | November 23, 2021
...Few ambassadors have been confirmed. Few chief financial officers are in place. With hundreds of billions of dollars about to go out in infrastructure grants, there’s no controller at the Office of Management and Budget. Key positions across every department are empty.
...Think about that: We’re approaching the end of Biden’s first year, and less than one-quarter of his leadership team is in place. This is no way to run a government.
There are multiple reasons. Biden has nominated just 432 people for those 802 positions. Before and after nomination, the vetting process can take months. And then, even if a nominee has the full backing of the relevant Senate committee, a single senator can gum up the works.
...Cruz...is blocking more than 40 State Department nominees, including most ambassadors.
Cruz at least has a policy objective; he is holding the appointees hostage, trying to force the administration to oppose a natural gas pipeline being built from Russia to Germany.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), by contrast, has joined in the hostage-taking with no serious purpose. After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he vowed to block all nominees to national security positions until the secretaries of state and defense resigned.
Not to be outdone, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced last week that he would put a hold on Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to China, the veteran diplomat Nicholas Burns. Rubio pronounced that Burns fails “to understand the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”
You may ask: How can one, or even two or three, senators block the confirmation of a well-qualified nominee who enjoys support of a majority of the Senate?
...(They) can’t. But under Senate rules, (they) can force Majority Leader Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to spend hours debating and voting on each one. And Schumer has a few other things on his mind: If the Senate doesn’t pass some kind of budget soon, the government will shut down. If it doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, the government will default. A defense authorization, the Build Back Better bill and nominees for lifetime judgeships are pending. So he would rather not devote floor time to confirming one administration official after another who, ordinarily, would be approved in quick votes, by unanimous consent.
... But Schumer at least should say: If the obstruction doesn’t ease up, nobody’s going home for Christmas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/23/with-hundreds-nominees-confir...
Cruz blocked another Biden nominee:
Republican Ted Cruz objected to a Democratic request to unanimously confirm Rufus Gifford as chief of protocol at the State Department. Under President Obama, Gifford was confirmed unanimously by the Senate as Ambassador to Denmark.
______________________________________________
Opinion: With hundreds of nominees to confirm, the Senate doesn’t deserve Thanksgiving break
Fred Hiatt, (WaPo) Editorial page editor | November 23, 2021
...Few ambassadors have been confirmed. Few chief financial officers are in place. With hundreds of billions of dollars about to go out in infrastructure grants, there’s no controller at the Office of Management and Budget. Key positions across every department are empty.
...Think about that: We’re approaching the end of Biden’s first year, and less than one-quarter of his leadership team is in place. This is no way to run a government.
There are multiple reasons. Biden has nominated just 432 people for those 802 positions. Before and after nomination, the vetting process can take months. And then, even if a nominee has the full backing of the relevant Senate committee, a single senator can gum up the works.
...Cruz...is blocking more than 40 State Department nominees, including most ambassadors.
Cruz at least has a policy objective; he is holding the appointees hostage, trying to force the administration to oppose a natural gas pipeline being built from Russia to Germany.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), by contrast, has joined in the hostage-taking with no serious purpose. After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he vowed to block all nominees to national security positions until the secretaries of state and defense resigned.
Not to be outdone, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced last week that he would put a hold on Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to China, the veteran diplomat Nicholas Burns. Rubio pronounced that Burns fails “to understand the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”
You may ask: How can one, or even two or three, senators block the confirmation of a well-qualified nominee who enjoys support of a majority of the Senate?
...(They) can’t. But under Senate rules, (they) can force Majority Leader Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to spend hours debating and voting on each one. And Schumer has a few other things on his mind: If the Senate doesn’t pass some kind of budget soon, the government will shut down. If it doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, the government will default. A defense authorization, the Build Back Better bill and nominees for lifetime judgeships are pending. So he would rather not devote floor time to confirming one administration official after another who, ordinarily, would be approved in quick votes, by unanimous consent.
... But Schumer at least should say: If the obstruction doesn’t ease up, nobody’s going home for Christmas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/23/with-hundreds-nominees-confir...
2margd
President Biden’s pick for a key banking regulator backs out.
Emily Flitter | Dec. 7, 2021
As comptroller, Saule Omarova would have overseen the agency that regulates the country's largest banks, with a staff of nearly 3,500 employees.
Saule Omarova, a Cornell Law School professor whom critics painted as a communist after President Biden picked her for a key banking regulator job, withdrew from consideration for the post on Tuesday.
...Ms. Omarova faced months of criticism from Republicans and bank lobbyists who cast her as a threat to the American economy. Lobbyists began to oppose her almost as soon as her nomination was announced, saying she wanted to replace the banking industry’s functions with services provided by the Federal Reserve.
They pointed to a 2020 paper that Ms. Omarova had written about ways the Fed could use its own digital currency, which central bankers had already begun to consider creating. (As comptroller, Ms. Omarova would have had to coordinate with bank regulators at the Federal Reserve but would not have had the authority to make changes to the banking system’s structure.)
...Republicans in Congress mimicked the lobbyists’ criticisms, saying Ms. Omarova’s academic work and her Soviet origins should disqualify her. In an exchange that drew gasps from Democrats during Ms. Omarova’s hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Nov. 18, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, demanded to know whether Ms. Omarova had ever resigned from a communist youth group that Soviet children were forced to join, adding, “I don’t know whether to call you ‘professor’ or ‘comrade.’”
But Republican opposition would not have mattered had Senate Democrats been united in favor of Ms. Omarova. Her nomination was ultimately doomed by a lack of support from moderates, making her the Biden administration’s third high-profile nominee to bow out after failing to receive the full backing of Democratic lawmakers. The White House also pulled Mr. Biden’s first choices to lead the Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/business/saule-omarova-occ-nomination.html
Emily Flitter | Dec. 7, 2021
As comptroller, Saule Omarova would have overseen the agency that regulates the country's largest banks, with a staff of nearly 3,500 employees.
Saule Omarova, a Cornell Law School professor whom critics painted as a communist after President Biden picked her for a key banking regulator job, withdrew from consideration for the post on Tuesday.
...Ms. Omarova faced months of criticism from Republicans and bank lobbyists who cast her as a threat to the American economy. Lobbyists began to oppose her almost as soon as her nomination was announced, saying she wanted to replace the banking industry’s functions with services provided by the Federal Reserve.
They pointed to a 2020 paper that Ms. Omarova had written about ways the Fed could use its own digital currency, which central bankers had already begun to consider creating. (As comptroller, Ms. Omarova would have had to coordinate with bank regulators at the Federal Reserve but would not have had the authority to make changes to the banking system’s structure.)
...Republicans in Congress mimicked the lobbyists’ criticisms, saying Ms. Omarova’s academic work and her Soviet origins should disqualify her. In an exchange that drew gasps from Democrats during Ms. Omarova’s hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Nov. 18, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, demanded to know whether Ms. Omarova had ever resigned from a communist youth group that Soviet children were forced to join, adding, “I don’t know whether to call you ‘professor’ or ‘comrade.’”
But Republican opposition would not have mattered had Senate Democrats been united in favor of Ms. Omarova. Her nomination was ultimately doomed by a lack of support from moderates, making her the Biden administration’s third high-profile nominee to bow out after failing to receive the full backing of Democratic lawmakers. The White House also pulled Mr. Biden’s first choices to lead the Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/business/saule-omarova-occ-nomination.html
3margd
Chris Murphy (US Sen D-CT) @ChrisMurphyCT | 11:33 AM · Dec 18, 2021:
But let’s be clear, Cruz only agreed to lift his hold when Schumer told him the Senate was going to stay in session through Christmas to process all the nominations done if he didn’t relent.
Quote Tweet
Robbie Gramer @RobbieGramer · 6h
After months of impasse, the Senate finally confirmed ~3 dozen US ambassador nominees last night. It came after Sen. Ted Cruz agreed to lift his blanket hold on State nominees, centering on a feud with Biden on Biden’s policy over a Russian gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2
But let’s be clear, Cruz only agreed to lift his hold when Schumer told him the Senate was going to stay in session through Christmas to process all the nominations done if he didn’t relent.
Quote Tweet
Robbie Gramer @RobbieGramer · 6h
After months of impasse, the Senate finally confirmed ~3 dozen US ambassador nominees last night. It came after Sen. Ted Cruz agreed to lift his blanket hold on State nominees, centering on a feud with Biden on Biden’s policy over a Russian gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2
4margd
"...hundreds of President Biden’s nominees whose bids for Senate-confirmed jobs have languished because of partisan dysfunction or personal pique..."
Hundreds of Biden Nominees Stuck in Senate Limbo Amid G.O.P. Blockade
Elizabeth Williamson | Jan. 8, 2022
A year into his term, only 41 percent of the president’s nominees for Senate-confirmed posts have been approved, a new analysis finds, the worst rate in decades.
...it has taken an average of 103 days for the Senate to confirm Mr. Biden’s nominees — about a month longer than in the Obama administration, about twice as long as in the Clinton administration and nearly three times as long as during the Reagan era.
...Late last month, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, agreed to schedule a potentially contentious vote on imposing sanctions on the company behind a Russian-laid natural gas pipeline to Germany to satisfy Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who had blocked scores of State Department nominees over the issue. Soon afterward nearly 40 nominations cleared the Senate, including Mr. Biden’s picks to be the U.S. ambassadors to China and Japan...
...Last month, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, briefly refused to confirm five U.S. attorney nominees from Democratic-leaning states, demanding on the Senate floor that Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, first apologize for interrupting him more than eight months earlier during a hearing. The Senate voted to confirm all five nominees soon after Mr. Durbin apologized.
...waiting nearly a year...Dilawar Syed, who was originally nominated in March as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. Republicans’ stated objections to confirming Mr. Syed, who would be the highest-ranking Muslim in the federal government, include his work for a Muslim advocacy group. But they also have cited their opposition to the Small Business Administration’s decision to approve pandemic aid to abortion providers.
...The White House announced in late July that Dr. (Deborah E) Lipstadt (74, the Dorot professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, and founding director of Emory’s Institute for Jewish Studies, a nominee of both R&D presidents for leadership roles at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) would lead an expanded office at the State Department focused on tracking and countering the rise of antisemitism abroad. For the first time, the role would carry the rank of ambassador, requiring Senate confirmation.
(Top R on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho) declined last month to say when Republicans would consent to a hearing on Dr. Lipstadt’s nomination. Mr. Risch and other Republicans have alluded to the holdup being tied to a tweet from Dr. Lipstadt about Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee.
In March, Mr. Johnson dismissed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying in a radio interview that he might have felt more threatened had the rioters been “Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters” instead of Trump supporters who “love this country, that truly respect law enforcement.”
Within days, Dr. Lipstadt tweeted a link to an article about Mr. Johnson’s comments and added, “This is white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple.” (margd: according to article, Lipstadt also criticize-tweets about Ds, e.g. Rep Ilhan.)
Republicans are said to be mulling asking Dr. Lipstadt to publicly apologize to Mr. Johnson before allowing her nomination to proceed...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/us/politics/biden-nominees-senate-confirmatio...
Hundreds of Biden Nominees Stuck in Senate Limbo Amid G.O.P. Blockade
Elizabeth Williamson | Jan. 8, 2022
A year into his term, only 41 percent of the president’s nominees for Senate-confirmed posts have been approved, a new analysis finds, the worst rate in decades.
...it has taken an average of 103 days for the Senate to confirm Mr. Biden’s nominees — about a month longer than in the Obama administration, about twice as long as in the Clinton administration and nearly three times as long as during the Reagan era.
...Late last month, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, agreed to schedule a potentially contentious vote on imposing sanctions on the company behind a Russian-laid natural gas pipeline to Germany to satisfy Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who had blocked scores of State Department nominees over the issue. Soon afterward nearly 40 nominations cleared the Senate, including Mr. Biden’s picks to be the U.S. ambassadors to China and Japan...
...Last month, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, briefly refused to confirm five U.S. attorney nominees from Democratic-leaning states, demanding on the Senate floor that Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, first apologize for interrupting him more than eight months earlier during a hearing. The Senate voted to confirm all five nominees soon after Mr. Durbin apologized.
...waiting nearly a year...Dilawar Syed, who was originally nominated in March as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. Republicans’ stated objections to confirming Mr. Syed, who would be the highest-ranking Muslim in the federal government, include his work for a Muslim advocacy group. But they also have cited their opposition to the Small Business Administration’s decision to approve pandemic aid to abortion providers.
...The White House announced in late July that Dr. (Deborah E) Lipstadt (74, the Dorot professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, and founding director of Emory’s Institute for Jewish Studies, a nominee of both R&D presidents for leadership roles at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) would lead an expanded office at the State Department focused on tracking and countering the rise of antisemitism abroad. For the first time, the role would carry the rank of ambassador, requiring Senate confirmation.
(Top R on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho) declined last month to say when Republicans would consent to a hearing on Dr. Lipstadt’s nomination. Mr. Risch and other Republicans have alluded to the holdup being tied to a tweet from Dr. Lipstadt about Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee.
In March, Mr. Johnson dismissed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying in a radio interview that he might have felt more threatened had the rioters been “Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters” instead of Trump supporters who “love this country, that truly respect law enforcement.”
Within days, Dr. Lipstadt tweeted a link to an article about Mr. Johnson’s comments and added, “This is white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple.” (margd: according to article, Lipstadt also criticize-tweets about Ds, e.g. Rep Ilhan.)
Republicans are said to be mulling asking Dr. Lipstadt to publicly apologize to Mr. Johnson before allowing her nomination to proceed...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/us/politics/biden-nominees-senate-confirmatio...
5margd
Where are the bank cops? Biden struggles to fill top regulatory jobs
The administration’s difficulties in getting bank cop nominees through a Democratic-controlled Senate underscore the fault lines within the party over how to approach financial regulation.
Victoria Guida | 03/23/2022
President Joe Biden pledged to bring financial oversight back in style after four years of rule rollbacks under Donald Trump. But more than a year into Biden’s first term, none of the government’s major bank regulators have Senate-confirmed leaders.
Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew last week as Biden’s nominee for the top job overseeing banks at the Federal Reserve after facing opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Moderate Democrats earlier rejected Saule Omarova, Biden’s pick to head another bank regulator, because she had advocated for a dominant role for government in finance. The other key overseer, the FDIC, was just taken over by an Obama appointee on an acting basis — though his term technically expired three years ago.
The result is that regulators have done little to reverse what many Democrats saw as a weakening of the guardrails around banks during the Trump administration. Progressive priorities, like making it tougher for banks to merge or pressing financial institutions to prepare for climate change, are moving slowly. And there’s no point person on the Fed board during an especially risky moment for the financial system as banks deal with soaring inflation, rising interest rates and disruption caused by the war in Ukraine...
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/22/federal-reserve-biden-powell-raskin-000...
The administration’s difficulties in getting bank cop nominees through a Democratic-controlled Senate underscore the fault lines within the party over how to approach financial regulation.
Victoria Guida | 03/23/2022
President Joe Biden pledged to bring financial oversight back in style after four years of rule rollbacks under Donald Trump. But more than a year into Biden’s first term, none of the government’s major bank regulators have Senate-confirmed leaders.
Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew last week as Biden’s nominee for the top job overseeing banks at the Federal Reserve after facing opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Moderate Democrats earlier rejected Saule Omarova, Biden’s pick to head another bank regulator, because she had advocated for a dominant role for government in finance. The other key overseer, the FDIC, was just taken over by an Obama appointee on an acting basis — though his term technically expired three years ago.
The result is that regulators have done little to reverse what many Democrats saw as a weakening of the guardrails around banks during the Trump administration. Progressive priorities, like making it tougher for banks to merge or pressing financial institutions to prepare for climate change, are moving slowly. And there’s no point person on the Fed board during an especially risky moment for the financial system as banks deal with soaring inflation, rising interest rates and disruption caused by the war in Ukraine...
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/22/federal-reserve-biden-powell-raskin-000...
