April 29 marks the third year in which the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget — a staggering dereliction of duty, particularly given the country’s near-$16 trillion debt. But that’s not the Senate’s only blockbuster failure under the leadership of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). From spending to jobs …
The Senate Budget Committee stretched a few definitions in announcing yesterday’s “Mark-Up of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013.” Turns out it’s not really a budget resolution, per se, and there will be no formal committee action on it—no amendments, no vote, no real committee-adopted fiscal …
In case you missed it, there was quite a performance in the U.S. Senate yesterday. Liberals put on an election-year show, with the personal encouragement of President Barack Obama, in which they attempted to impose higher taxes on the oil industry as punishment for their profits while gas prices are …
In an editorial last month, The New York Times argued that the Senate should adopt President Obama’s plan requiring the Senate to vote on judicial nominees within 90 days—thus eliminating the filibuster as applied to those nominations. The Times notes that this is a “major change in position” from its …
It is bad enough that, after more than 1,000 days since passing a budget resolution, the Senate has decided to forgo this fundamental obligation once again this year. Even worse is the absurd excuse by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D–NV) that a budget resolution is unnecessary because Congress already …
The Senate is currently considering the addition of a public corruption bill as an amendment to the STOCK Act. While the goal of reining in public corruption is laudable, as has been discussed before, many of the policies in the proposed amendment raise significant overcriminalization concerns. Heritage, a task force …
Tuesday, January 24, will mark the 1,000th day since the U.S. Senate has passed a budget—an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch. By enacting continuing resolution upon continuing resolution (short-term measures to keep the government running, spending money at the current rate), the Senate has taken a pass …
The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama would recess-appoint Richard Cordray as chairman of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board. There’s just one problem: The U.S. Senate is not in recess. The decision to appoint these officials nonetheless appears to …
Last fall Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) visited Heritage to talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the “unaccountable” nominee to head the agency. At the time, there was speculation President Obama would attempt to bypass the U.S. Senate to install Richard Cordray as CFPB director. That’s exactly what happened …
