Democratic senator says he will block Trump nominees until USAID is back
Democratic senator says he will block Trump nominees until USAID is back
Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON—Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until his administration’s attack on the leading foreign-assistance agency ends, a move that...
Summary
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) announced he will block all of Trump’s State Department nominees until USAID is reinstated.
His move comes after Elon Musk took control of USAID, placed senior staff on leave, and seized classified information.
Schatz condemned the administration’s “authoritarian behavior” and vowed to delay confirmations until USAID operates normally.
His blockade could significantly slow Trump’s ability to fill key diplomatic positions, forcing Senate Republicans to spend more time pushing nominations through.
Good as a start, but come on guys, you've had decades to learn from Mitch McConnell how to do this! Stymie them at every turn. Filibuster everything. Make them drag the anchor for every move. Propose bills that would block them, even if they're doomed to fail, to slow down the process.
Trust me, this is one time your constituents DON'T want you to be the party of smooth-running government! We don't want to slide off the cliff into fascism!
Democrats are so bad at this. You could literally bring everything to a standstill by requiring votes on everything, even things everyone agrees with
Trump 45 was happy to let his appointees work as interim this-or-that or acting whatchamacallit, and those people seemed to have exactly as much authority as confirmed appointees. Maybe they didn't get the full paycheck? but senate confirmation seems to be completely unnecessary to the exercise of power when everyone just goes along anyway.
I'd be pretty happy to see Dems grind congress to an halt with investigations of absolutely everything, filibusters of everything else, and red card holds, or whatever other magical Senate traditions allow single Senators to completely stifle government activity.
So what your telling me is that Democrats could have been blocking nominees this whole time..
No. This just delays the confirmations. They basically just don't get fast tracked.
Yep. Cut them off from praying on poor countries, and you get them to act.
It makes them take 60 votes. What I want to know is who are the 7 Democrats that are approving nominations?Nvm, I'm wrong.
Dems upset they can't loan shark poor countries
USAID?
My guy, he already tried to kill you guys once four years ago. He's having military and federal LEOs snatching people off the street, getting all their practice in for when it starts against non-migrants.
You're not wrong but your urgency and priorities need some fucking help and reassessment here.
To be fair, the USAID probably keeps more people alive than most other US government entities. Definitely per dollar funding.
Call your reps!
My senators are solid progressive democrats so I dont need to message them, and my House representative already bent over with his asshole pre-lubed for Trump on January 6th and ignores all mails I send to him. Damn I wish I had a voice. Oregon moment.
It is still worth to call.
Thanking your senators for holding these positions and expressing dissatisfaction with your representative. Honestly what musk is doing should make even MAGA upset.
Going back to your original statement. You said you don't need to call because senators hold such position, and don't need to call because representative doesn't. So what configuration would make you call? Because it sounds like you weren't planning to do it no matter what.
I guess you could still voice your support and encouragement to your Senators, in a time that calls for their courage.
Kotek is being infuriatingly silent or both-sides-need-to-work-together about everything as well. I get she wants to keep the flow of sweet federal money coming in so she doesn't want to piss off Trump but lets be real, that spigot is being shut off sooner or later anyway.
My (R) Senator's voicemail greeting is a loop of him laughing maniacally, is that normal?
Give em the Tuberville treatment
Such a hold would halt the chamber’s ability to move bills quickly, and require Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use precious floor time to ram the president’s nominees through the confirmation process.
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