the National Labor Review Board and the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau.
WASHINGTON —The U.S. Senate reached a loose bipartisan agreement
Tuesday to avert Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan to invoke
the "nuclear option" to make it easier for the chamber to approve
presidential executive branch nominees.
"We're basically done -- everything but dotting the i's and crossing
the t's," the Nevada Democrat told reporters following the weekly
Senate lunches.
Under the agreement, Democrats will get up-or-down votes on seven
nominations to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
Democrats will have to abandon two NLRB nominees who were
recess-appointed by President Obama, which is under legal review by
the Supreme Court. Republicans, in turn, have agreed to take action on
two new NLRB nominees with the intention of approving all seven
nominations before the August break.
While the bipartisan agreement heads off a controversial maneuver by
Reid to change Senate filibuster rules to lower the maximum threshold
required to approve executive nominees from 60 to 51 votes, Reid
stopped short of calling it a victory.The agreement applies only to
the seven pending nominations, and Democrats warned that the debate
could re-emerge in this Congress. "We got a 'yes.' And I think I
should take the 'yes,'" Reid said, when asked what Democrats achieved
in this fight.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that
the current accord will not stop the minority from exercising their
rights in future nomination fights. "All the options available to the
minority remain intact," McConnell said.
It is commonly referred to as the "nuclear" option because it
threatened to tear apart the Senate along partisan lines by upending
long-held Senate rules and traditions protecting minority party
rights.
The agreement was secured following a weekend of quiet talks between
senators and a three-hour long meeting late Monday with the full
Senate.
In the first sign of progress, the Senate voted 71-29 Tuesday to move
ahead with the confirmation of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, one of the nominations that had been at
the center of the dispute.
Democrats in particular praised Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his
efforts to head off the nuclear option, and Sen. Roger Wicker,
R-Miss., for suggesting the Monday meeting. "John McCain is the reason
we're at the point we are," Reid said, "No one was able to break
through but him."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who also played a key role in
negotiating the compromise, echoed Reid's praise of McCain in securing
a working agreement. Schumer said he and McCain spoke at least 30
times through the weekend and late Monday.
"I think both leaders saw, and everybody saw, that we were so close
that it would be a shame to have an Armageddon, if you will, when we
were so close," Schumer said, adding that the deal was "crystallized"
Tuesday morning.
"It's good for the Senate, and hopefully it paves the way for
continued and more bipartisan cooperation in the Senate. We walk up to
the brink, but we get there," Schumer added.
Schumer said McConnell asked Reid to pledge not to attempt the nuclear
option again in this Congress, but Reid countered he could only do so
if McConnell pledged Republicans would not filibuster executive branch
nominations.
Neither leader could agree to the other's demand for a long-term agreement.
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