A single objection? It’s the need to do it by unanimous consent, which will always fail. You can’t force a vote the way the majority can.
JD
1710
Me waking up earlier today, seeing the news alerts on my phone, knowing that I’m gonna have a good time scrolling through the Qt3 thread.
newbrof
1711
what? The democrats stole the election AGAIN? Sure thing, now that they have the technology, why not using it?
/s just to be sure
Matt_W
1712
Well exactly, but only because of the filibuster. Unanimous consent is used to grease the wheels and get around cloture votes. I don’t see any reason Bernie can’t move to vote without UC.
I’m pretty sure that since the minority doesn’t control the agenda, they can only propose legislation via unanimous consent.
Matt_W
1714
I thought that too, but I couldn’t find any support for it. I’ve spent a bunch of time trying to figure that out, and all I could come up with was that it’s by custom to make the Senate function effectively and not use up valuable floor time with doomed votes.
I’m def not trying to be obtuse. I would love for someone to actually lay out exactly how McConnell stymies Democratic legislation from getting to the floor using Senate rules. But AFAICT he actually can’t.
I don’t think you are! But this question is still unanswered:
You answered it with this:
…but then agreed that it will not force a vote, because one member of the majority will object to it and it’s dead. So again, what is the special power a Senator in the minority has to actually force a cloture vote on a bill? You agree that the majority can certainly force a cloture vote, by putting it on the agenda, right? So how can the minority do it?
Matt_W
1717
There isn’t really an agenda per se. There’s the Calendar of Business, but bills are placed on there as a matter of course. The ML only controls what happens on the floor each day by convention and because it’s more efficient that way. Business on the floor is conducted on the floor, not on an agenda, i.e. it doesn’t matter what any agenda says–what happens on the floor happens on the floor. There is no motion that the ML can introduce that any Senator cannot. And any Senator who asks to be recognized by the presiding officer is required to be recognized.
UC is used by convention. But AFAICT any Senator can move to proceed by regular vote. And then any other Senator can object and filibuster, which requires cloture to shut down.
Matt_W
1719
Agreed!
I’m curious–I think committee memberships are assigned by proportion, i.e. if there are 60% Republicans in the Senate then 60% of committee members should be Republicans. How does that apply when the Senate is 50/50? Right now, for instance, the Senate Budget Committee actually has more Dems than Reps on it. And the Judiciary committee has 12 Reps and 10 Dems. How is that proportion determined, I wonder?
Nope. Per the Constitution, their terms ended with the end of the 118th Congress on Sunday. Neither was sworn in with the crop of new senators.
Didn’t Loeffler says she was going to vote to overturn the EC? She can’t, though, if her term is done.
I don’t think this is right. Any Senator can make a motion to proceed on a bill, but that bill has to be on the calendar / agenda. If not, then only the unanimous consent approach can be taken, and that can’t force a vote. So there is power in being in the majority and setting the calendar / agenda.
De facto control is still control. Senators who might have objected to moves that buck this convention will no longer have anything to object to - Schumer will be able to put things through regular process and get them on the floor.
There will be filibusters, but if it used on everything and particularly on wildly popular things, pressure will grow to revoke the filibuster.
It also means that there’s a chance Dems can keep control in 2022, possibly adding a vote beyond Manchin’s.
They also get 2 reconciliation votes this year to try to fix the budget
Matt_W
1724
I mean, I’d love to see where this is in the rules.
I don’t think it will be any different. If there aren’t 60 votes, it generally won’t get to the floor. But we’ll see.
True, but that’s because we have the majority, not because we control the Senate’s agenda.
I believe that since Loeffler was appointed to serve Isakson’s term, which didn’t end until 2023, she’s a Senator until Warnock’s election is certified.
I LOL’d. Has Chuck been lurking on QT3?
If Schumer tweets later today about Dave’s nuts then I will know I’ve lost my mind.
Yes, Loeffler is still a Senator. Perdue is not, which is why he is sitting out today’s vote. But he’s an seditionist racist, so of course he encouraged the other Senators to object to the EC.
Ossoff’s lead should crest .5% sometime today as votes are counted in Georgia. It’s up to 16,000 votes, and 0.37%.
