Republicans in the Senate want to change the rules to speed up the confirmation process for presidential nominations. Yet their proposal goes much further. It empowers the majority and minority… Read More
Key Points: 1) Republicans can speed up the confirmation process by enforcing the Senate’s current rules and practices. 2) Strictly enforcing the provisions of Rule XXII limits the amount… Read More
It’s hard to imagine the Senate being any more dysfunctional than it already is. And yet here we are. Reports indicate that Republicans, frustrated by how long it takes to confirm… Read More
This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested that he alone has the power to select the measures on which his colleagues vote. When McConnell was asked why the… Read More
Senate Republicans are not yet convinced that they can amend a resolution to terminate a presidential declaration of a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act. While the… Read More
Do you ever get the feeling that your friends and coworkers are talking about an obscure federal statute that you have never heard of before? Have you recently been unable… Read More
Nearly ten years ago, I set out to tell a story about the Senate that was not being told. I wanted to understand better how the Senate actually worked at… Read More
Back when he was the Senate’s minority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, disagreed profoundly with how Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., managed the institution. McConnell even accused Reid of doing “tremendous damage… Read More
In January 2014, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made the case that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was running the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” into the… Read More
The Senate’s rules of procedure are comprised of five parts: the Constitution; Standing Rules; statutory rules; standing orders; and precedents. The interaction of these component parts creates the procedural architecture… Read More
