Reid Refuses Vote on Obama’s Jobs Legislation

Overrides Senate Parliamentarian & Then Changes Senate Rules


By Dell Hill

Parliamentary procedure is the “official rule book” that dictates the rules, ethics and timeless customs directly associated with organizations, and most especially legislative bodies.  In the United States, parliamentary procedure is SUPPOSED to be used to conduct legislative actions in both the House and Senate.

Not to follow parliamentary procedure results in a declaration of an act being ruled “out of order” and the person who determines what’s “out of order” is the parliamentarian - a person considered an expert in the rules; a referee, so to speak.

What happened in the United States Senate last week borders on criminal, but it’s not the first time it’s been done.  Majority Leader Harry Reid ramrodded yet another vote to override a ruling issued by the parliamentarian and he simply changed the rules on how the Senate conducts its business.

Republican Senators wanted to vote on the President’s latest jobs legislation and Reid knew he didn’t have the votes to pass it.  Rather than follow the Senate rules, he avoided the obvious huge embarrassment of not being able to pass the bill by changing the rules.  He invoked the so-called “Nuclear Option” once again.

The Faces of Honest Leadership

The Hill has been all over this most recent Reid manipulation of the rules and we need to be aware of the blow-back that’s surely coming:

“Senate Republicans vow they will retaliate for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision to unilaterally change the Senate’s rules Thursday without prior warning or negotiation.

Republican aides say their bosses will now be even more reluctant to allow the Senate to conduct routine business by unanimous consent, forcing Reid to gather 60 votes for even the most mundane matters.

“Reid fired a major salvo and it’s hard to imagine a return shot won’t be fired. Maybe over the weekend they’ll come up with something and try to make it less worse than it already is,” said a Senate GOP leadership aide.
       
Partisan anger hit a boiling point in the chamber this week after Republicans refused to allow final passage of a China currency bill unless Democrats voted on President Obama’s jobs package, as originally drafted.

Triggering what has come to be known as the chamber’s “nuclear option,” Reid overturned Senate precedent that allowed Republicans to force votes to proceed to non-germane amendments.  He did so by voting with 50 of his Democratic colleagues to overturn a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian.

The controversial procedural tactic hasn’t been used in years.  In a chamber where it requires the consent of all 100 senators to dispense with the reading of a bill, changing the rules unilaterally is considered bad form.

Former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) predicted Thursday’s blow-up on the floor would have aftershocks.

“It’s obviously consequential and significant,” he said of the surprise rules change.

Eric Ueland, who served as chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), also predicted repercussions.

“Usually if you set off a nuke, you’re responsible for the fallout," he said. “There’s likely to be fallout here to the extent members on either side of the aisle feel this new gag rule impedes their ability to legislate.  That has ramifications down the line.”

More than majority leaders before him, Reid has used a tactic known as filling the amendment tree to block Republicans from offering politically charged amendments to legislation.  He has done this to protect vulnerable members of his caucus from taking tough votes.

He did it on the China currency bill that was being debate when he triggered the nuclear option.  Republicans had no recourse to force a vote on Obama’s jobs package than to offer a motion to suspend the rules after the Senate had already voted to move to final passage.

By changing the rules Thursday, Reid barred Republicans from forcing votes even on motions to suspend the rules to proceed to amendments designed to send a political message.

One GOP strategist said giving the minority an opportunity to vote on these message amendments “lets partisan steam out of the kettle.”

Now that Republicans have been deprived this outlet, they warn pressure will build up, threatening an explosion.

Reid halted Senate business in the middle of consideration of the China bill Thursday night and rescheduled a return to work for Tuesday, giving angry Republicans time to cool off.

He and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ messaging and strategy guru, have also proposed a bipartisan caucus meeting, to give lawmakers on both sides of the aisle chance to talk out their frustrations.
Reid said he would be happy to sit down with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in an effort to mend fences.

“I’m sure we can all cinch up our belts and, as they say in the old and new testament, gird our loins and try to do a better job of how we get along here,” Reid said.

“One of the things I want to do is have a joint caucus,” he said. “I want to have one with Democratic senators and Republican senators and at that time we can all talk about some of the frustrations we all have.”

McConnell has yet to respond to the overture.

Reid and McConnell entered into a gentlemen’s agreement at the beginning of the year to allow the Senate’s business to proceed more smoothly.

Reid promised to give Republicans opportunities to offer amendments, and McConnell pledged not to filibuster motions to proceed to legislation, unless the legislation is highly controversial.

Schumer and Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) also worked out an agreement to allow hundreds of mid-level administration nominees to be appointed without Senate confirmation.

Senate aides say the gentlemen’s agreement and spirit of bipartisan cooperation that existed in January are now dead.”

We invite you to read the entire report from The Hill by clicking here.

The major problem for Harry Reid right now is the blow-back that’s bound to happen as early as Monday morning on the floor of the Senate.  Republican Senators - literally incensed with Reid - will turn this action against him and start demanding roll-call votes for every single vote that comes to the floor.  That includes the naming of the post office in outter-nowhere USA to honor a political crony, something that normally results in a legal suspension of the rules to accomplish by “unanimous vote”.

Normally, the rules are suspended for the reading aloud of every piece of legislation. Not going to happen now.  And most legislation is thousands of pages long and will take many hours to read.  

Reid knows what he’s done and he knows what’s coming.  That’s why he’s working feverishly to to quell the anger from the Republican side of the aisle.
He knows that Republican campaign ads will feature the president calling for congress to “pass this bill now”, followed by a list of his own party members who voted again it.

Reid is taking one for the team here.  And the balance of this congressional session is likely to be fraught with one major battle after another.

For politicians like Harry Reid, if you can’t win playing by the rules, you simply change the rules!