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Chad Pergram

24 Feb, 9 tweets, 2 min read

1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Tanden nomination – and trouble which lies ahead for Democrats

The nomination of Neera Tanden to be OMB Director is up in the air. One committee today pushed back a meeting on her nomination to give senators more time.

2) But, as is no surprise, the success or failure of Tanden’s nomination comes down to the math.

Tanden needs 51 votes for confirmation – in a 50/50 Senate.

3) The hand-wringing over Tanden shows the perils of confirming President Biden’s nominees and passing legislation. If Democrats stick together, they can be fine with assistance from Vice President Harris on a tie-breaking vote or if they can score support from a Republican or so

4) But otherwise, this shows just how narrow the majority is and is a hallmark of the Democrats’ perils in the 117th Congress.

5) There could be issues which linger around the corner for Interior Secretary nominee and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Health & Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra.

And, for Republicans, this is a layup. They can kill nominees if they stick together.

6) Senate Republicans confirmed a couple of controversial nominees during the Trump Administration on narrow votes – with the tie-breaking vote of then-Vice President Pence.

7) In fact, Pence’s tie-breaker to confirm former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in 2017 marked the first time any cabinet official was confirmed on a such a ballot cast by the Vice President.

8) A number of cabinet level or other high-profile nominations have been withdrawn over the years. Patrick Shanahan to be Defense Secretary under President Trump. Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood to be President Clinton’s Attorney General in 1993.

9) But former Sen. John Tower (R-TX) was the last cabinet nominee defeated on the floor. He was up for Defense Secretary in 1989.

In 1995, the nomination of Dr. Henry Foster to become Surgeon General went by the wayside on a procedural vote.

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More from @ChadPergram

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

26 Feb

A) The House today debates and votes on the $1.9 trillion COVID package. The actual vote could come late tonight. Democrats can only lose a handful of votes on their side and pass the bill.

B) Liberals are upset at the Senate Parliamantarian ruling a minimum wage increase out of order for this bill. That said, the House plan considered today will begin with the wage hike included.

C) Any attrition in support for the bill by Democrats would consitute a major blow for President Biden.

We expect the Senate to consider the plan next week. The measure will have to be bounced back to the House during the second week of March.

Read 4 tweets

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

26 Feb

1) Budget Cmte Chair Sanders: I strongly disagree with tonight’s decision by the Senate Parliamentarian. The CBO made it absolutely clear that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour had a substantial budgetary impact and should be allowed under reconciliation.

2) Sanders: It is hard for me to understand how drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was considered to be consistent with the Byrd Rule, while increasing the minimum wage is not.

3) Sanders: Yet because of the archaic and undemocratic rules of the Senate we are unable to move forward to end starvation wages in this country and raise the income of 32 million struggling Americans. That fight continues.

Read 4 tweets

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

26 Feb

A) Tonight’s ruling on the minim wage reveals how little power progressives truly have to upend Washington. This was always going to be the tension inside the Democratic party. They hoped to raise the minimum wage. End the legislative filibuster.

B) Approve climate change legislation. Immigration reform. But, tonight’s ruling does not bode well for progressive ideals. This could tear at the seams of the Democratic party.

C) Democrats can extoll progressive ideas. But legislative and parliamentary realities will get in the way of actually enacting such plans into law.

Read 4 tweets

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

26 Feb

1) User’s Manual to the Parliamentarian ruling the minimum wage increase out of order for the coronavirus bill

2) Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled tonight that the Democrats’ gambit to include a $15 an hour minimum wage increase in the COVID relief bill violated special budget reconciliation rules.

3) Democrats elected to use the special budgetary process for the COVID measure to avoid a filibuster. But, budget rules restrict provisions from the bill which address policy or contribute to the deficit over an extended period.

Read 20 tweets

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

25 Feb

1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the House debating and voting on the COVID bill Friday

House Democrats are poised to approve $1.9 trillion in spending for the sixth round of COVID relief Friday night. We don’t know the timing. But we suspect it will be sometime Friday evening.

2) The House Rules Committee meets at 9:30 am et Friday morning to prep the plan for the floor.

Timing is up in the air because big bills never quite move as quickly as they’re expected to on the floor. Plus, there are wild cards.

3) Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has engineered two protest votes this week in an attempt to get the House to adjourn. One of those votes set the House schedule back by nearly an hour and a half.

Read 15 tweets

Chad Pergram

@ChadPergram

24 Feb

1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Finding Out If the Minimum Wage Increase Is in the Coronavirus Bill

2) Tom Petty said the waiting was the hardest part. He should have tried waiting on Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to decide whether an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour qualifies under budget reconciliation rules to be included in the next COVID bill

3) Fox has checked in with numerous sources this afternoon. No one knows when we will know what the ruling is by MacDonough. Everyone is holding their breath.

Read 7 tweets

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