WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proclaimed his determination to end the use of the filibuster to block presidential appointments this morning, indicating his intention to bypass a Republican blockade on a confirmation vote for the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other presidential nominations as soon as tomorrow.
The move threatens to destroy any comity in the Senate, which could extend to the pending efforts to seat two members on the three-person NCUA Board, where one nomination is pending and a second is expected in the next few weeks.
The Senate Banking Committee is expected tomorrow to endorse Richard Metsger, a former state senator in Oregon, and pass the nomination on to the full Senate for a vote, but observers are wondering whether the growing fight over Republican filibusters could affect the NCUA bid. “That’s one possibility,” Ryan Donovan, senior lobbyist for CUNA, told the Credit Union Journal today. He suggested growing anger by Republicans over the nuclear option could destroy any kind of consensus in the body, even for non-controversial nominations like the Metsger one.
The vote on Democrat Metsger comes as a second seat on the NCUA Board, the one held by Republican Michael Fryzal, become vacant August 2, when Fryzel’s six-year term expires. Fryzel has declined inquiries about his plans but is expected to serve on until a successor is seated.
Any delays in seating one or both NCUA nominees could result in NCUA having a single Board member, Chairman Debbie Matz. A similar situation occurred in January 2002 when Republican Dennis Dollar was awaiting Senate confirmation of two other NCUA candidates.
Meantime, Reid has threatened to resort to the so-called nuclear option to force a vote on the nomination of CFPB Director Richard Cordray to a five-year term, and for several other Obama appointees who have been stalled in the Senate. The nuclear option would enable the Democrats, who control a clear majority of the Senate’s 100 votes (with 55) to avoid a Republican filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome. “All we want to do is what the Constitution says we should do. Filibusters are not part of the Constitution,” said Reid during a speech this morning.
Cordray, who was seated a year ago as an abbreviated recess appointee by President Obama, is currently in limbo, with her recess term expiring at year-end and currently being challenged in the courts. The legal questions holding over the appointment also jeopardize new regulations on mortgages, credit cards and wire transfers enacted by the CFPB under his direction.
Reid described the change to Senate rules he proposed as “minor.” The filibuster in its current form would continue to apply to judicial nominations, which unlike the CFPB and other administration posts are lifetime appointments, and to legislation.
Republicans can avert any attempt to implement what they have called the “nuclear option” by simply allowing seven stalled nominations to move ahead for up-or-down votes, said Reid. They include Cordray’s CFPB bid, three members of the National Labor Relations Board, and the heads of the Labor Department, Environmental Protection Agencyand the Export-Import Bank.
Changing Senate rules typically requires a two-thirds majority, but Democrats say there is a loophole available that would allow them to do so with 51 votes. Reid claimed he had sufficient support among his 54-member Democratic caucus to do so. Vice President Joe Biden, expected to come to the Senate on Tuesday to swear in Massachusetts Sen.-elect Edward Markey, would also be available to cast a tie-breaking vote if necessary.
