Senate Pros And Cons Essay

Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia said they would join Republicans in support of the appellate court judge. "After doing my due diligence by meeting with Judge Gorsuch and reviewing his record and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I've decided to vote in favor of his confirmation," Heitkamp said in a statement. Manchin said in his statement that "I will vote to confirm him to be the ninth justice on the Supreme Court. Supreme Court jurists should have an extensive career in law, a record of upholding the Constitution in their rulings, an established judicial philosophy, and an appropriate temperament. Throughout Judge Gorsuch's career, he has come to his legal rulings objectively, through the letter of the law rather than through his own opinion.” Under current Senate rules, Gorsuch would need to be confirmed with 60 votes, but the threat of filibuster during Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing has led for Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham, to call on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to invoke the "nuclear option" that would allow Gorsuch to be confirmed by a simple majority

The bill then went to the senate where there was much debate and procrastination. Many senators opposed to the bill tried to use the “filibuster” technique, which basically is an extended talk for the purpose of killing a bill or getting drastic modifications. In fact, it was the longest debate in Senate history lasting 534 hours in total. The final vote in the Senate was 76 to 18 to pass their version of the bill since they made minor amendments to it (Bureau of National Affairs 18-21). A quote from Senator John Lesinski, democrat, showed why some were opposed to the bill, “There are still many private rights in America that under our Constitution are beyond the power of government to regulate and one of these is the right to pick and chose one’s associates, one’s friends and one’s customers in a private business” (Calls Bill Unconstitutional 33). The final vote in the House over the amendments the senate made was 289 to 126. This set the way for the bill to be signed by the President to become a law.

Even with the respect of the senior Senator the majority Senate has to decide if the candidate will be beneficial to them, a litmus test is performed to see how the judge will decide. A litmus test is a test that shows what political ideology a candidate follows. If a Republican majority senate performs this test and sees that the candidate votes on issues with a strong liberal view they will likely not confirm the candidate. The litmus test however is not a guarantee on how a candidate will vote, some judges will not vote according to their political ideology, but just based on interpretation of the Constitution, as the Constitution is supreme law of the land.

The main difference between the House and the Senate is that the house puts all responsibility on the national government while the Senate positions the responsibility onto the states when it comes to creating their health insurance exchanges. It seems as though that if a state fails to do it they are then under the hand of the House and not the Senate. While both bills are aiming towards a similar result they go about it in different ways. Exclusivity of the health insurance exchange is one way they differ. , The Senate wants non-group health insurance to be sold outside of the exchange where it will be less regulated. The House calls for all non-group health insurance coverage to be sold through the health insurance exchange.

Today, Supreme Court Nominee’s, Neil Gorsuch, Confirmation hearing came near conclusion on a very confrontational note with the Senate’s Principal Democrat threatening to filibuster. This would complicate the way the senate “conducts its business”. The Republicans eager to confirm Gorsuch only have a 52-majority instead of the 60-majority that is necessary. However, they say he will be confirmed anyway, even if it means removing the filibuster option and allowing nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s decision to filibuster was not unexpected but it will increase tension in the senate. “If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees, and George Bush’s last two nominees — the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee,” he said. Although the democrats do not have the votes to block this motion, his filibuster will publicize the resistance in the Congress.

Over the course of the last eight years, the senate became hyper partisan due to unprecedented obstruction and filibuster. Republicans overused filibuster, resulting in the difficulty of Obama appointing any new persons. This is when Democrats brought the nuclear option before the senate. As this occurred, Senator Mitch McConnell stated, “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you’ll regret this. And you may regret this a lot sooner than you think” (Berman). Inadvertently, Mitch McConnell foreshadowed the future political events. McConnell is a Republican, transparently showing his feelings about the decisions made by the—at the time—majority. Contradicting McConnell’s statement, Senator John McCain expresses that, “This is a body blow to the institution, and I think we’re on a slippery slope.” Recalling past confirmation wars, McCain cannot simply agree with the idea relying completely on majority votes because of the controversy; however, he did follow suit with voting likewise other Republican senates (Kane). Even with disagreements, the Republican party as a whole still manages to shut down the Democratic

This bill is striving to assure that minimum wage workers are making enough money to be able to financially support themselves and their families. This bill calls for the federal minimum wage to be adjusted every four years so that the received annual income of these employees is at least 15% above the federal poverty edge for a four-person

the U.S. Congress to term limits. There are many ways in which this could occur,

A scheduled vote on Baton Rouge Republican Steve Carter’s “Gas Tax” bill was postponed Wednesday amid concerns that it did not have the necessary support for House passage. Set to raise the State’s tax on gasoline by 17 cents per gallon, the measure would raise upwards of $500 million each year for transportation and infrastructure needs. HB632 would require a two-thirds majority for approval and current whip

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, came out against the legislation, saying the cuts to Medicaid and tax eliminations would benefit wealthy individuals at the cost of hurting others.

While in session, a special committee of five Democrats and five Republicans was established to oversee the creation of a new cloture rule for the Senate. On March 8, 1917, the committee presented its compromise. The compromise called for a rule that would permit cloture on any measure. To obtain it, however, one needed the support of two-thirds of all senators “present and voting.” Despite the new rule, cloture was rarely used

Our live top marginal tax rate is 39.6% which would be kept there in the House bill, but the Senate bill seeks to reduce it down to 38.5%, which is favored by supply-side economic theorists who state that this reduction will let the economy grow.

Supporters of the bill include the sponsor of HB 216 Representative Pelanda. Representative Nickie Antonio and Pelanda both spoke at the congressional hearings in favor of the bill before it passed. The bill passed with only one nay vote both times it was voted on in the House. The nay vote was Republican Representative Niraj Antani Supporters of the bill also included (OOAPN) who helped make technical

The idea of a unanimous consent in the Senate is to basically pass amendments in a faster manner. Like what is stated in Davidsons book on how everything that happens inside the Senate is extremely sluggish.

The majority of the senate's legislative review is done within it's committee system, as committee’s have always been part of the senate(Ray, 2013). “What the author fails to mention is that the senate standing