By 2/2/17
Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee suspended the rules on Thursday in order to approve President Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency after Democrats boycotted the meeting. Committee rules required a quorum to be present in order to do any committee business, which required at least one Democrat to be present. But in light of an ongoing Democratic boycott of several committees, Republicans changed the rules, and unanimously confirmed the nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, in an 11-0 vote........To Read More......
Comment by John Ray - Once again, Democrats are undone by their living in an eternal present, with no thought of yesterday or tomorrow. What the GOP did here was follow a precedent set by Harry Reid, when he showed that you could bypass important checks and balances through a simple rewriting of the Senate rules.
Reid had no respect for precedent and now the GOP have followed suit. Reid quite amazingly abolished the filibuster for all but approval of SCOTUS judges. That insouciance has now come back hard to bite the Donks on the butt. They set a dangerous precedent for temporary gain and now are virtually disarmed in resisting Trump appointees
This is of course not the end of Senate scrutiny for the appointees but it clears away a roadblock. And final approval should now follow easily
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