The week
The Senate is effectively at an impasse due to McConnell’s demand for obstruction
Senate Democrats are drawing a line in the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Demand that a 50-50 Senate power-sharing agreement include a pledge to maintain legislative obstruction. “If we give it to him, the obstruction would be in everything, every day,” Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) Told NBC’s Chuck Todd at Sunday’s Meet the Press. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) offered McConnell “word for word” the same power-sharing agreement used in the first half of 2001, and McConnell’s insistence on adding the promise of obstruction is “an impediment”. Schumer and McConnell agree on the Senate’s operational rules. Republicans still retain much of the majority they lost last Wednesday. “Without an organizational agreement, Republicans remain in the majority on most Senate committees” and “veteran Democrats eager to grab the hammer and advance their long-dormant agendas can just wait and ask themselves,” explains The Washington Post. “Newly installed Democratic senators cannot get committee assignments until an organizational agreement is closed”, leaving the old Republican majority structures in place, and “Democrats cannot unilaterally impose an organization agreement because they would need Republican support. to block an obstruction. “The obstruction has evolved into a de facto sclerotic demand from an absolute majority of 60 senators across the legislation. Frustration over minority obstruction led Senate Democrats to end the obstruction for some presidential nominees and lower court judges in 2013, and McConnell continued to erode the obstruction as a majority leader, killing it for Supreme Court nominees and further facilitating the confirmation of presidential nominees. A handful of Democratic centrists would prefer to maintain the obstruction – for now. But there is growing pressure from inside and outside the chamber. “There is absolutely no reason to give Senator McConnell months and months to prove what we absolutely know – that he will continue his impasse and minority dysfunction,” said Eli Zupnick, spokesman for the liberal anti-obstruction coalition Fix Our Senate. More stories from theweek.com Trump should be prosecuted Josh Hawley knows exactly what he’s doing Moderna working on booster injection to increase protection against the South African variant of the coronavirus