CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
May 13, 2009 – 7:13 p.m.
With Reduced Numbers, Senate GOP Finds Caucus Unity a Powerful Tool
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Senate Republicans have scored a series of small-scale legislative victories recently despite their diminished numbers and a recent high-profile defection.
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans prevented one of President Obama’s nominees from moving forward, one day after a GOP senator won adoption of a controversial amendment easing restrictions on guns in national parks. Another Obama nominee, for a key Justice Department post, is on the ropes.
Republicans have managed to post those legislative field goals, despite the fact that their 40-member conference is the smallest since Republicans controlled 38 seats in the 95th Congress (1977-79).
“Obviously, with our diminished numbers, there is more pressure on us to hang together or hang separately,” said John Thune of South Dakota, vice chairman of the Republican conference. “We’ve recognized that we have to band together when we can. It’s not going to happen every time, it’s not going to happen on every issue, but I think there’s a realization that we’re a lot stronger when we operate as a team.”
The recent successes follow the April 28 announcement by Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was switching from the GOP to the Democratic Party, putting Democrats within reach of a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. Specter’s switch has been cast as a significant blow to a party struggling to find its identity as it squares off against a popular president and invigorated congressional Democrats.
But the realities of moving legislation through the Senate are complex, and Republicans are seeing an increased incentive to band together as the pressure mounts for Democrats to muster the votes to overcome a GOP filibuster,
“If they just try to roll over us with more government, I think you’ll see us stick together on most things,” said South Carolina’s Jim DeMint , a fiscal conservative who predicted that Republicans would look for opportunities to pick up the votes of moderate Democrats as well.
That’s what happened May 12, when 27 Democrats voted in favor of Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn ’s amendment to allow people to carry firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges.
Coburn, who had been working for months to get a vote on the proposal, threatened to derail credit card legislation (
Coburn said it was “not going to be a piece of cake” for Democrats to prevent the adoption of Republican amendments, particularly on issues, such as guns, that divide the Democratic Caucus.
Republicans in February also used the guns issue to splinter Democrats and slow down legislation to provide the District of Columbia with full House voting representation (
Interior Appointment Stalls
In addition to amendments, Senate Republicans have been flexing their muscle on nominations that they find objectionable.
On Wednesday, all but two GOP senators stuck together at the request of Utah Republican Robert F. Bennett to turn back a cloture motion that would have paved the way for a confirmation vote on President Obama’s nominee for the No. 2 spot at the Interior Department, David Hayes.
“In a repeat of a scene we’ve become too familiar with lately . . . Republicans are standing in the way,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev.
Even with just 40 seats, Republicans have opportunities to prevent Democrats from mustering the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin acknowledged. Forty senators is enough to mount a filibuster in a shorthanded Senate, now at 99 members because of the contested Minnesota race.
“As a whip, you always run into a problem because somebody’s going to be missing or sick or doesn’t want to vote with you,” Durbin said. “It’s the reality. So 60 is not magic. It’s great to have, better than 59. But no guarantees.”
Reid, meanwhile, is also battling dissension within his own caucus and scrambling to secure enough votes to confirm another nominee, Dawn Johnsen, who is Obama’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel
Reid said May 12 that he did not know when he would be able to bring Johnsen’s nomination to the floor, adding that he was working to peel off a few Republicans but had not done so.
At least two Democrats — Specter and Nebraska’s Ben Nelson — have said they will vote against Johnsen but have not indicated whether they would support cloture. Johnsen, an Indiana University law professor, has drawn fire from social conservatives for her previous work for abortion rights groups and for criticizing the OLC’s counterterrorism policies during the George W. Bush administration.
Thune said GOP senators will be picking and choosing their battles to ensure some victories. “Our ability to not only stop things that we think ought to be stopped but to also influence legislation is affected by our ability to stay together,” Thune said.
Comments
The "party of no" is aptly named. Obstructing things, while important at times, is just plain nonsense when it is used to slow the appointment of a senior departmental official on bogus grounds.
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