Tag: presses

Black Caucus presses Senate Dems to blow up tradition on judges

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So the Black Caucus, joined by a coalition of progressive groups, is turning up the heat on Senate Democrats in what’s becoming the most consequential battle over chamber rules since Democrats tried last year to weaken the filibuster.
“I don’t know why anyone, let alone Senate Democrats, would hold up a Jim Crow practice,” Black Caucus Chair Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said in an interview on Wednesday, describing the GOP’s use of blue slips against judicial nominees as a civil rights issue.
“It is literally about the fundamental survival of the people we represent,” Horsford added. “And we expressed that history, that context and that necessity to Chairman Durbin. I respect the chairman. He understands the dilemma.”
The dispute has huge implications for the future of the federal judiciary, the Senate and the White House. With the House run by Republicans until 2024 at least, Senate Democrats still can confirm judges for lifetime appointments without a single GOP vote — but Republicans can block some of those nominees from ever getting to the chamber floor by denying blue slips.
The acrimony is particularly acute among House members from blue districts in red states. They’re chafing at their Republican senators’ unwillingness to let nominees through and looking to Senate Democrats to help — even though during the Trump era the CBC urged the GOP to keep the blue slip to give Democrats some say in lifetime nominees.
So Durbin isn’t ready to get rid of the tradition for federal district court nominees. And both Black Caucus members from the Senate, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Raphael Warnock, share his reluctance to change the practice.
In an interview, Durbin said he and GOP senators are negotiating over new Biden nominees that will become public soon. And several GOP senators said in interviews that they are working closely with the White House to address nominees for district court judgeships, U.S. attorney posts and U.S. marshals posts, all of which are subject to the blue slip.

In an interview, Dick Durbin said he and GOP senators are negotiating over new Biden nominees that will become public soon.
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Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo
The Senate Judiciary Committee previously abandoned the blue slip for appellate court nominees who cover multiple states. If Durbin wanted to nix the practice for district courts, it would not require a Senate rules change.

Durbin is still receptive to the Black Caucus’ entreaties, saying that he needs a “higher level of cooperation” from the GOP. He estimated that fewer than 20 of Biden’s nominees have received green lights from the GOP, while Democrats provided more than 110 for former President Donald Trump’s judicial picks during his time in office.
“I tried to explain to them the arcane Senate rules. And how difficult it would be to do business. So I don’t know if I convinced them, because a lot of them are frustrated with the lack of cooperation,” Durbin said of his meeting with the Black Caucus.
Republicans have used their blue-slip power recently against two Biden nominees, in addition to last year’s rejection by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) of William Pocan — the brother of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) — as a district judge. Democrats’ big fear, however, is that Republicans will start using the practice more.
In a letter to Durbin this week, a coalition of progressive groups warned that “39 of the 43 district court vacancies subject to Republican blue slips — 91% — still do not have nominees.” The letter’s signatories ranged from Demand Justice to the League of Conservation Voters to End Citizens United.
“The blue slip policy should be reformed or discontinued to ensure a fair process and stop Republicans from blocking highly-qualified Biden judicial nominees,” the progressive groups wrote. Their ideas: ignore blue slip blockades, force a firm timeline for senators to register their objections and require public explanations for blue slip denials.
Republicans are holding their ground. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the party’s top member on the Judiciary Committee, said that scrapping the blue slip makes the Senate “irrelevant” and criticized the White House for not conducting sufficient outreach to the GOP.
The White House is “turning to the red states because they’ve filled all the blue states, and it takes consulting. They didn’t even talk to people in Florida for six months. I made them talk to them. So this is a manufactured issue,” Graham said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded that “the White House has done outreach to every single Republican Senate office that represents a state with a judicial vacancy. In many instances, that outreach dates back to the previous Congress.”
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) accelerated the blue slip clash after she announced she would stop Scott Colom from taking a Mississippi judgeship. It’s likely that Biden may need to find a new nominee; “Sen. Hyde Smith will not budge,” said one person with direct knowledge of the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There are currently more than 65 federal district court vacancies, and 38 of those do not have nominees — many of them in states where Republican senators have veto power. The lower-level courts are the Democrats’ primary focus after prioritizing appellate courts over the last two years.
In addition, Kansas GOP Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran are slowing the nomination of Jabari Wamble to fill a district court seat while they await Biden’s choice to fill an appellate court vacancy covering their states. In an interview, Marshall said he’s simply being “cautious” and didn’t indicate where they would fall on a blue slip for Wamble.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a Judiciary Committee member, said he is having “a lot of good conversations” with the White House; as many as three Missouri seats could be open by the fall.
Horsford said Black Caucus members want every Republican withholding a blue slip to disclose their reasoning. He was joined in the Durbin meeting by Black Caucus members Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Troy Carter (D-La.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Al Green (D-Texas), and Booker.
Horsford said the lawmakers emphasized to Durbin that blue slips are not a Senate rule but a custom. For many of his members, Horsford added, “it’s hard for them as the sole Democrat in some of their southern states to defend a policy where one or two Senate Republicans can hold up those nominees.”
Notably, the practice has yielded some success stories. The all-GOP Senate delegations in Idaho and Louisiana worked with the White House to hatch bipartisan agreements, and Indiana’s two Republican senators worked to confirm a home-state judge by a rare voice vote this year.
And Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she’s willing to give it another go with Johnson, even after he stopped William Pocan.
As Booker recalled in an interview, he used blue slips to stifle Trump’s judicial picks — underscoring that the power to stop judicial nominees can also help Democrats during GOP presidencies.
Still, Booker is clearly torn: “Anytime you tear up a Senate tradition, you should be really thoughtful about it.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 4, 2023
Appeals court presses pause on House GOP subpoena to former Trump prosecutor

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Bragg then sued Jordan and the Judiciary panel, seeking a court order preventing the House from enforcing the subpoena.
While the Judiciary committee has contended that it wants to study the potential effects that the threat of a future prosecution could have on a president while he is in office, Bragg argued that the House had no legitimate legislative purpose in issuing the subpoena and instead intends to examine the district attorney’s internal deliberations regarding the Trump indictment.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Manhattan declined to block the subpoena to Pomerantz. “The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,’” U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil wrote.
Bragg’s legal team appealed immediately to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which ordered that Pomerantz’s deposition be put on hold. Jordan and the committee must file briefing to the appeals court by Friday, with Bragg’s response due Saturday.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
House GOP presses agencies on small business rules

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House Small Business Republicans, led by Chair Roger Williams of Texas, sent letters to 25 agencies Wednesday. | Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP Photo
House GOP lawmakers are launching a sweeping oversight effort aimed at ferreting out how agencies across the federal government weigh the potential impact on small businesses when crafting regulations.
House Small Business Republicans, led by Chair Roger Williams of Texas, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri and Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas, sent letters to 25 agencies Wednesday about their compliance with laws that require them to analyze the effects of new rules on small employers and to produce compliance guides for those firms. The committee’s push is designed to shield small businesses from burdensome regulation.
The targets include the EPA, the DOL, the IRS and the CFPB. In the letters, committee Republicans cite examples where they said agency regulatory work has fallen short when it comes to small business impact.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 23, 2023
RS Chairman Dhankar presses for breach of privilege notice against 12 opposition MPs

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Delhi: Continuing the action against unruly MPs in the Rajya Sabha following the suspension of Congress MP Rajni Patil for the entire Budget Session, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar has given his consent for the privilege committee to examine the conduct of 12 MPs from the opposition.
“Members are informed that the Chairman, Rajya Saba has referred a question of the alleged breach of privilege arising out of gross disorderly conduct displayed by the Rajya Sabha MPs in violation of rules and etiquette of Rajya Saha by repeatedly entering the well of the Council, shouting slogans and persistently and wilfully obstructing the proceedings of the Council, compelling the Chair to repeatedly adjourn the sittings of the Council, under rule 203 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Raiya Sabha) to the committee of Privileges for examination, investigation and report,” said a Rajya Sabha bulletin.
The names of the Rajya Sabha MPs include those from the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in particular. These 12 MPs are Sanjay Singh, Shaktisinh Gohil, Sushil Kumar Gupta, Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Naranbhai J Rathwa, Syed Nasir Hussain, Kumar Ketkar, Imran Pratapgarhi, L Hanumanthaiah, Phulo Devi Netam, Jebi Mather Hisham and Ranjeet Ranjan.
In addition to this, there has been another privilege notice against AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh for repeatedly submitting a notice for suspension of the Zero Hour in Parliament to discuss the Adani stock issue.
In fact, during the first part of the session, the Rajya Sabha chairman had pulled up Sanjay Singh for giving identical notices.
“Members are informed that the Chairman, Rajya Sabha has referred a question of an alleged breach of privilege arising out of non-adherence to the directions of the Chair vis-a-vis repeated submission of identical notices under rule 267 by Sanjay Singh, Member, Rajya Sabha, under rule 203 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) to the Committee of Privileges for examination, investigation and report, the Rajya Sabha bulletin further elaborated.
With the opposition parties demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Adani stock matter, the Upper House of Parliament witnessed a massive ruckus in the recently concluded first half of the Budget Session. Ruckus and sloganeering took place in the middle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech for the Reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President address.
After repeated warnings to the opposition members, the Rajya Sabha chairman had suspended Congress MP Rajni Patil for recording mobile videos of the ruckus.

After the recess, the second part of the Budget Session will resume on March 13 and will continue till April 6.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 21, 2023
Bommai presses for US consulate in Bengaluru

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Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday stressed the need to open a US consulate in Bengaluru.
His statement came after meeting the US Charge d’Affaires Elizabeth Jones and Consul General in Chennai Zudith Revin here.
He said currently, the nearest US Consulate is in Chennai and it is causing problems for travellers from Bengaluru to the US, noting that on average, 5,000 people, including foreigners, travel from Bengaluru to the US.
Bommai said the government is extending cooperation to all the American companies working in Bengaluru. Since Karnataka is blessed with an industrial-friendly and investment-friendly atmosphere, there is more FDI.
Bengaluru has been the capital of startups and has the maximum number of unicorns in the entire country. Job opportunities are plentiful here. Karnataka has been at the forefront of the aerospace and defence sectors and plans are afoot to manufacture the spare parts of the aircraft.
“Bengaluru is the city of the future so there is a need to open the consulate office here,” he reiterated, adding a lot of international events will be taking place in Bengaluru such as Global Investors Meet, Invest Karnataka, and symposiums, and international guests will come here to take part in them.
Jones said: “This is my first visit to the bustling city of Bengaluru, India’s ‘Silicon Valley’. Karnataka plays a significant role in advancing the US-India commercial partnership and alone hosts over 650 US companies, whose presence creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in India and the US.
“Our two economies are intertwined in countless ways. We are excited to further bolster the partnership between the US and Karnataka. Let me also take the opportunity to congratulate you and your cabinet colleagues on being ranked first yet again in the India Innovation Index.”

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 15, 2023
Rajya Sabha sees verbal skirmishes as Oppn presses for JPC probe

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New Delhi: Verbal skirmishes between treasury and opposition benches that forced frequent interventions by the Chair marked the proceedings in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday as the opposition parties targeted the government on the Adani issue pressing for a JPC probe.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the House during the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, opposition members referred to allegations against the Adani group made by Hindenburg Research and made several insinuations, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to repeatedly ask them to authenticate the charges by end of the day.
Dhankhar urged the members to maintain dignity and not make wild allegations unless authenticated with evidence. Members of the treasury benches also asked the opposition MPs to authenticate the charges made in the House.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge led the charge, demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the allegations against Adani, and asked why the government was “shying away” from an investigation.
Kharge also invoked Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘raj dharma’ remark made post-2002 Gujarat riots, sparking a heated exchange with BJP members who accused him of quoting the former prime minister “partly to suit their convenience”.
Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also opposed Kharge’s remarks made during his speech and asked him to authenticate the allegations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the debate at 2 pm on Thursday.
Leaders of BRS, AAP and Shiv Sena (Thackeray) earlier walked out of the House in protest after their adjournment notices on the Adani issue were denied by the Chairman who found no merit in them.

Congress member K C Venugopal also alleged the government is running away from an investigation by a JPC on the allegations against the Adani Group as it wants to “hide something”.
Leaders from different Opposition parties demanded a JPC probe on the Hindenburg-Adani issue and many alleged that the President’s speech missed out key issues especially the “attacks” on minority Muslims, price rise and unemployment, and demanded a caste-based census.
Amid a fiery debate, Rajya Sabha on Wednesday also witnessed rare moments of collective mirth when Kharge, during his speech, praised Chairman Dhankhar’s work as a lawyer and recalled that the vice president once told him that in his early years as an advocate he used to count cash with his hands, but as his career took off he bought a ‘cash counting machine’.
“I did not say this. I think you will get a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) set on me,” Dhankhar told the Congress president as the House broke into peals of laughter over the exchange between the two veterans.
Kharge also said that Prime Minister Modi was targeting even his home constituency Kalaburagi in poll-bound Karnataka by addressing public rallies not once but twice, bringing a smile to Modi.
Leader of the House Piyush Goyal also quipped that Kharge was wearing a Louis Vuitton scarf and a JPC probe cannot be instituted on individual cases.
Amid the raillery, Kharge said the prime minister is always in election mode. “Even the parliament was in session, he went to my constituency in Kalaburghi,” he said in a lighter vein adding that PM had two meetings and he selected only his constituency for this.
The remark evoked laughter among those present including PM Modi.
Kharge raised concerns over the “growing communal divide” and alleged that Dalits were being beaten for entering temples.
Their hate is not against us but also on religion, caste and language, said Kharge asking the ruling party to stop it. He asked the prime minister why he was “sitting quietly.
“Once you give a stern glance, the people would stop spreading hate. This situation has come to this because you have kept quiet and become a ‘Mauni Baba’,” he said, prompting Dhankhar to intervene and point out that such remarks do not suit his stature.
With Chairman Dhankhar interrupting several times during the Leader of Opposition’s speech, asking him not to say anything which goes against the national spirit, Kharge lost his cool.
“I differ with your opinion. If I speak the truth, it is anti-national! I am not anti-national. I am more patriotic than anybody up here.
“I am a Bhumi Putra. I have not come from Afghanistan or Germany or other countries. I am a native of this land, I am a ‘Mool Bhartiya’ don’t try to suppress me, my feelings. You are ruling the country and you are telling that I am anti-national,” he retorted.
Countering the Opposition attack, BJP MP Surender Singh Nagar said the years 2009 to 2014 were marked with scams.
He said that people talking of corruption are those whose entire family is on bail for corruption charges.
He said under the Modi government, corruption has been weeded out and India’s prestige across the world has grown manifold times.
Venugopal said the truth will come out with a JPC probe.
“This House has the greatest tradition. That House also has the greatest tradition. Whenever this type of big scam is raised in the public domain, it is the right of the parliamentarians to ask for an inquiry from the government
“If the government does not need to hide any truth, then it should come forward for a JPC inquiry, like during the UPA rule, how many JPC inquiries we have done.. we are asking why are you running away from JPC… something is there somewhere,” he said.
Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav hit out at the Congress, saying the opposition does not believe in any data put out by the government as he reeled out numbers related to employment generations, rise in internet users, vaccination, MUDRA loan, and free cooking gas connections.
The Congress does not appreciate anything on which India takes pride, he alleged.
Ajit Kumar Bhuyan (Independent), who belongs to Assam, said the people of the region had developed some hope after the prime minister told the nation that the Naga conflict was resolved but the President’s Address does not reflect any concern on the Naga conflict.
Vivek Thakur (BJP) spoke about the various development works and initiatives by the Modi government that have empowered the poor, farmers, dalits, tribals, and rural India during the last nine years.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Jaya Bachchan demanded that the government conduct a caste-based census so that Other Backward Community (OBC) people can avail the benefits of government welfare schemes and jobs.
Bachchan alleged that the President’s speech failed to mention what the government has achieved in improving the lives of women, sanitation workers and senior citizens.
NCP leader Fauzia Khan alleged that the ruling government was using the Enforcement Directorate to target the opposition party members, and there is no politics with principles at present as “fear and exclusion” are used as a strategy for polarisation.
Abdul Wahab (IUML) favoured the demand for JPC probe and also alleged that the President’s speech did not address the struggles of the Muslims.
Sulata Deo (BJD) talked about women’s empowerment and emphasised the need for the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Kavita Patidar (BJP), Birendra Prasad Baishya (AGP), Ramchandra Jangra (BJP), Brijlal (BJP) and Rwngwra Narzary (UPPL) also participated in the debate.
TMC MP Abir Ranjan Biswas said the immediate inquiry into the “big scam” which is currently creating much furore can happen in two different ways. It could be through a JPC or a time-bound probe by a Supreme Court-monitored Committee.
“So, we demand the second, of course, if the first plan is touching the weak nerve of the government,” he said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 8, 2023
Black caucus presses Biden to use the bully pulpit to push for police reform

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The White House and the Black community find themselves at another tragic and all-too-familiar inflection point: eager to respond to another police killing of a Black man that has captured the nation’s attention but with limited capacity to do so. Horsford and the Black caucus plan on leading a full court press to show the country that D.C. isn’t completely toothless when it comes to this issue — that this time should be different. But those calls come in the shadow of a lack of movement on police reform. And even reform’s biggest boosters aren’t bullish on that shadow lifting.
“I’m not optimistic. I’m not confident that we are going to be able to get real police reform,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who will attend the White House meeting. “I approach working on this issue as a responsibility that I have to do, that we must try.”
Faced with the likelihood of legislative inertia, lawmakers and advocates have looked for solutions — even incremental ones — elsewhere.
In a CBC meeting Tuesday night, lawmakers zeroed in on their first and biggest request of Biden: a commitment to talk about policing in his State of the Union next week. They also discussed using the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as a starting framework for legislation to present to Biden — knowing that lawmakers would need to scale back the bill to open up the possibility of passage.
On Tuesday, Horsford met with Susan Rice, the director of the Domestic Policy Council, to preview requests the CBC will present to the president — including executive actions for changes to criminal justice laws. He said Rice appeared “open to hearing further recommendations for areas that may be things that the executive branch can do.”
More broadly, lawmakers, civil rights leaders and criminal justice reform advocates are pushing for Biden to use the bully pulpit to gather support to pass legislation, however it is shaped.
“The president has unique powers in the office of the presidency. He’s committed to this issue,” Horsford said. “He can use his position to help, just like he did by getting the [Bipartisan] Safer Communities Law across the finish line. Just like he did with getting the infrastructure law across the finish line, just like he did getting the CHIPS and Science law across the finish line.”
On both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, the death of Nichols has led to a sense of political agony and déjà vu. Lawmakers recognize they’ve been in this place before, as do White House officials. But there is also the feeling that little is left to do but run the same playbooks.

The last round of negotiations failed in September 2021 after a flurry of finger pointing and general disagreement over the issue of qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects police officers from lawsuits. Advocates say that this time around, they hope that a more consistent message from Biden — not just calling for one piece of legislation and stepping away to let members of Congress hash it out — can move the bill along. But those calling for action are also clear-eyed that Republicans now control the House of Representatives and that nine GOP votes are needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
The White House has taken steps to show it’s invested in the issue. After the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act failed to get a Senate vote in 2021, Biden eventually signed an executive order that created a national database of police misconduct, mandated body-worn camera policies and banned chokeholds from federal law enforcement agencies.
After Nichols’ death, the administration has taken additional steps to show that it is eager for action and attuned to the anguish felt by the Black community. When the video of Nichols’ death was released, both Biden and Harris reached out to his family to send their condolences. While speaking with Nichols’ mother and stepfather, Harris was invited to attend Wednesday’s funeral in Tennessee and accepted.
The White House has again called for Congress to pass the police reform bill but Biden has also consistently alluded to a lack of executive power left in his toolbox. “I can only do so much,” the president told reporters Friday.
“The president will continue to do everything in his power to fight for police reform in Congress,” a White House official said, “but it is Republicans in Congress who need to come together with their Democratic colleagues to ensure our justice system lives up to its name.”
Whether that will be enough for those looking to the White House for action is doubtful. Advocates praise the White House for doing what it can, often calling attention to the work of the Justice Department to be more aggressive in addressing policing and shootings involving officers. But how the next few days and weeks go will give the country an early indication of the ways in which the president plans to operate during major national crises without the power of both chambers of Congress.
Next week’s State of the Union address will provide Biden with his biggest audience. Members of the Nichols family will be attending the speech as guests of Horsford. Their presence, one Hill aide said, “means the president will all but have to speak to the issue.”
“Good politicians are able to adapt to the weather, the political weather. So if it’s raining, you go out with an umbrella,” said Maurice Mithchell, the national director of the Working Families Party. “We’re counting on his ability to address this in the shadow of this horrific murder that the political climate has shifted. And so that requires a different type of politics, not the politics of two weeks ago or the politics of a year ago.”
But activists are also going to be looking at how the White House operates outside the bright lights of next week’s State of the Union.
Marc Morial, the National Urban League president who has met with Biden multiple times over the administration, said the president has “expressed to us in some meetings before [that he] could get out there and talk about this every day, but then sometimes that undermines the ability to get it done.”
But Morial, who has commended the administration for its executive orders and work using the Justice Department to address policing, added that on issues like criminal justice reform, the administration needs to be “showing efforts.”
“People will read that if you don’t talk about it, you don’t care. Because the way people define the presidency is by the bully pulpit,” Morial said. “They’re not in the meetings with members of Congress. They’re not in the telephone conversations. They don’t see the staff work all the time. And that’s the tension that the White House has got to figure that out.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 2, 2023