All posts tagged: U.S. Senate

US Senate Passes Ukraine And Israel Aid Package

US Senate Passes Ukraine And Israel Aid Package

The US Senate has approved long-awaited aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature and reaffirming America’s commitment to its allies abroad after months of delays caused by intra-party Republican warfare on Capitol Hill. Senators voted 79-18 in favour of the $95 billion foreign aid package, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine, $8 billion for Taiwan and $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid. The legislation also includes a controversial provision forcing the popular social media app TikTok to be sold or to face a ban in the US. The bill picked up more support since the last time the chamber voted on a similar package in February: 10 senators changed their votes to advance the measure on Tuesday. “Today the Senate sends a unified message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in its hour of need,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. “We tell our allies: We will stand with you. We tell our adversaries: Don’t …

McConnell to Step Down as US Senate Republican Leader in November

McConnell to Step Down as US Senate Republican Leader in November

WASHINGTON —  U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s said on Wednesday he would step down from his leadership role, leaving a power vacuum atop the party he has piloted for nearly 17 years, more than any other party leader in the chamber’s history. “I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions are closer than I prefer,” McConnell said on the Senate floor, his voice breaking with emotion. “Father Time remains undefeated. I’m no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues remember my name. It’s time for the next generation of leadership.” The Kentucky lawmaker’s departure will remove a central character in negotiations with Democrats and the White House on spending deals to keep the federal government funded and avert a shutdown. It will also mark the step back of an orderly counterpart to the tumultuous approach of Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and the hardline House Freedom Caucus ahead of the November election for president, the full House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. …

A Snapshot of Biden’s Swing-State Troubles

A Snapshot of Biden’s Swing-State Troubles

Last week, when The New York Times and Siena College released a poll that showed President Joe Biden in trouble in battleground states, Democrats began to sound apocalyptic. The panic, turbocharged by social media, was disproportionate to what the surveys actually showed. Although the results in my home state, Nevada, were the worst for the president out of the six swing states that were polled, the findings are almost certainly not reflective of the reality here, at least as I’ve observed it and reported on it. Nevertheless, they bring to the surface trends that should worry Democrats—and not just in Nevada. The Times/Siena data show Donald Trump ahead of Biden in Nevada 52 percent to 41 percent, a much larger margin than the former president’s lead in the other battleground states. Could this be true? I’m skeptical, and I’m not alone. After the poll came out, I spoke with a handful of experts in both parties here, and none thinks Trump is truly ahead by double digits in the state, where he lost by about …

Senators Need to Stop Abusing the ‘Hold’ Procedure

Senators Need to Stop Abusing the ‘Hold’ Procedure

What is a “hold” in the Senate? This is not a question that many casual observers of American politics would normally ask. But Tommy Tuberville, the senator from Alabama, has made it a more urgent one with his blanket hold on all key military promotions that have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Tuberville’s action, now in its seventh month, has kept hundreds of military leaders, including top officials, in limbo, doing real harm to the nation’s armed forces. As Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told CNN, Tuberville is “playing Russian roulette with the very lives of our service members by denying them the opportunity to actually have the most experienced combat leaders in those positions to lead them in times of peace and in times of combat.” The three top service secretaries wrote jointly in The Washington Post earlier this month, decrying what Tuberville is doing. No specific rule created the Senate-hold procedure; it is a custom, but one that flowed from the rules of a legislative body that values consensus …

The First Great Crisis of a Second Trump Term

The First Great Crisis of a Second Trump Term

Both his supporters and and his opponents assume that former President Donald Trump’s legal jeopardy will go away if he can win the 2024 presidential election. That’s a big mistake. A Trump election in 2024 would settle nothing. It would generate a nation-shaking crisis of presidential legitimacy. Trump in 2024 means chaos—and almost certainly another impeachment. Trump’s proliferating criminal exposures have arisen in two different federal jurisdictions—Florida and the District of Columbia—and in two different state jurisdictions, New York and Georgia. More may follow. As president, Trump would have no power of his own to quash directly any of these proceedings. He would have to act through others. For example, the most nearly unilateral thing that Trump could try would be a presidential self-pardon. Is that legal? Trump has asserted that it is. Only the Supreme Court can deliver a final verdict, which presents a significant risk to Trump, because the Court might say no. Self-pardon defies the history and logic of the presidential-pardon power. Would a Supreme Court struggling with legitimacy issues of its …