WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened yesterday to pursue the so-called nuclear option as soon as Tuesday and bypass the Senate minority’s ability to filibuster presidential appointments, in an effort to move to a vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to a five-year term as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Corday’s and dozens of Obama nominations have been stalled in the Senate, where Republicans have used parliamentary procedures to filibuster votes—meaning any nomination requires a super-majority of 60 votes—an impossible threshold with 45 Republicans in the Senate. The continuing block on the Cordray nomination forced President Obama to seat the CFBP director last year as a recess appointment, which expires at the end of this year unless the Senate votes confirmation for a full term.
"I'm going to go to the floor on Tuesday and do what I need to do so this doesn't happen anymore," said Reid, the Nevada Democrat, who has been frustrated by the Republicans’ filibuster of numerous judges and agency appointees, including Cordray.
The nuclear option, so-called because it would blow up any kind of cooperation in the Senate where Democrats claim as many as 55 votes, would require that Presidential appointments be seated by a simple majority of the Senate and not be subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The CFPB appointment has become the focal point of this constitutional battle, with Republican senators insisting they will not vote on Cordray or any nominee to head the new consumer agency until President Obama agrees to their demands to change the nature of its oversight and funding, set out in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
The uncertainty over the CFPB leadership has thrown doubt on the legality of new rules and regulations approved by the agency on credit cards, mortgages and wire transfers.
Meantime, President Obama’s CFPB recess appointment of Cordray and others to join the National Labor Relations Board is under judicial review by the Supreme Court because Republicans claim the Senate was not in an official “recess” when the President made the appointments.
Along with Cordray, Reid is seeking Senate votes on three NLRB nominees; the Environmental Protection Administration Administrator, Secretary of Labor, and president of the Export-Import Bank.
