GOP retaliation over filibuster rule change could jam Senate in 2014

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Senate Republicans still smarting from a Democratic rules change that diminished their power to block President Obama's appointees are vowing retribution against the majority when lawmakers return to work in January.

 

The GOP in the final weeks of the 2013 session provided a glimpse into what that might mean in 2014. Unable to block most presidential nominees because of the Democratic rule change, Republicans are using their remaining authority to slow the Senate to a crawl, delaying action on routine matters that typically pass uncontested.

 

Senate Democrats changed the rules to limit Republicans' use of the filibuster to block most presidential nominees for administration jobs and the judiciary. Only Supreme Court nominees are still subject to the filibuster.

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who with other Democrats complained that Republicans were abusing the filibuster, changed chamber rules so that only a simple majority of 51 votes is needed to advance a nominee instead of the previous 60. Republicans took umbrage, particularly because Reid initiated the change through use of the so-called "nuclear option" and sidestepped Senate rules requiring 67 votes to alter a parliamentary rule, doing so instead with a bare majority of Democrats.