Although they’ve become famous for their use of obstruction and the filibuster to kill Democratic legislation in recent years, congressional Republicans increasingly appear to be using a different tactic to thwart Democrats: the political standoff. It works like this: the Senate approves some key piece of legislation on a bipartisan basis, but House Republicans simply ignore the bill and pass a version of their own. The GOP then demands the Senate discard its own bill and pass the House version instead. It...
Posts Tagged ‘ Senate ’
For Women’s Day, Democratic Senators Push John Boehner To Quit Birth Control Fight
In observance of International Women’s Day, all 12 Democratic women senators sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker John Boehner calling on him to rescind his pledge to push forward with efforts to restrict women’s access to contraception after the Blunt amendment was defeated in the Senate. The senators’ letter comes in the wake of Boehner’s public pledge to continue efforts to limit birth control access in the House, where a similar version of the Blunt amendment has over...
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe to Retire
Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe has announced her retirement. A moderate Republican, who has often voted with Democrats in the Senate cited the extreme partisanship of recent years as her reasoning. In a statement Snowe said, “Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional...
Breaking: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Announces Plan to Step Down from Congress
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has just announced plans to step down from Congress. Giffords was the “victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district.” She said her work toward recovery was her reason for stepping down. Prior to the shooting Gabrielle Giffords “had been considered a rising Democratic star, and had been considering a bid for Senate this fall.” She has been absent from Capitol Hill over the course of her...
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