WASHINGTON — Some Senate Democrats resumed calls for the so-called “nuclear option” Thursday after Senate Republicans blocked two presidential nominees.
Republicans have blocked the nomination of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the nomination of Patricia Millett to the U.S. Appeals Court for the Washington, D.C. Circuit by voting against cloture, effectively filibustering the nominations.
If invoked, the nuclear option would allow Democrats to push through presidential nominations without any support from Senate Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal in January to avert the nuclear option. In July, the two again negotiated on a “new normal,” in Reid’s words, to streamline the process for confirming presidential nominees. The deal, Reid said at the time, was that “Qualified executive nominees must not be blocked on a procedural supermajority vote.” An exception was made for “extraordinary circumstances.”
But after the Watt and Millett votes, the nuclear option is back on the table, some Democrats have declared.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, the president pro tempore of the Senate, threatened such a change after the Watt vote, as the body prepared to vote on Millett’s nomination.
“No argument has been lodged against her [Millett] that drives to the level of an extraordinary circumstance,” Leahy said in a floor speech. ”If the Republican caucus finds … that somehow a filibuster is warranted, I believe this body will have to consider whether a rules change should be in order. If Republican senators are going to hold nominations hostage without consideration of individual merit, we will have drastic measures.”
“I just think we should bite the bullet and change the rules at this point,” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters after the votes. “Sen. Reid has been very clear about his priority to end this gridlock on nominations, and I will continue to follow his lead, but I’m going to advocate for us to actually pull the trigger this time.”
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