Senate confirms Obama pick for U.N. ambassador
The Senate easily confirmed President Barack Obama’s selection for ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday, capping a month in which senators used a bipartisan truce on once-mired nominations to fill a cluster of vacancies in the president’s second-term administration. Senators approved Samantha Power for the post by 87-10. The vote put the former Obama foreign policy adviser and outspoken human rights advocate into the job formerly held by Susan Rice, whom the president has made his national security adviser. Power joined a stack of nominees that senators have approved since striking a bipartisan deal in mid-July. Republicans agreed to allow votes on seven of Obama’s picks after Democrats agreed to drop plans to invoke the so-called nuclear option, forcing Senate rules changes that would have made it harder for the chamber’s minority parties to block some nominations. Over the past three weeks, senators have approved Obama’s choices to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other agencies.
FOR AJC
THURSDAY’S SENATE VOTES
Confirmation of Samantha Power as ambassador to the United Nations. Passed 87-10.
• Johnny Isakson (R) -Yes
• Saxby Chambliss (R) - Yes
To bring to the floor an appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The vote was 54-43, meaning the bill failed to receive the 60 necessary to end debate.
• Isakson (R) - No
• Chambliss (R) - No
FOR AAS
THURSDAY’S SENATE VOTES
Confirmation of Samantha Power as ambassador to the United Nations.
• John Cornyn (R) -Yes
• Ted Cruz (R) - No
To bring to the floor an appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The vote was 54-43, meaning the bill failed to receive the 60 necessary to end debate.
• Cornyn (R) - No
• Cruz (R) - No
FOR CMG Ohio
THURSDAY’S SENATE VOTES
Confirmation of Samantha Power as ambassador to the United Nations.
• Sherrod Brown (D) -Yes
• Rob Portman (R) - Yes
To bring to the floor an appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The vote was 54-43, meaning the bill failed to receive the 60 necessary to end debate.
• Brown (D) - Yes
• Portman (R) - No
For PBP
THURSDAY’S SENATE VOTES
Confirmation of Samantha Power as ambassador to the United Nations.
• Bill Nelson (D) - Yes
• Marco Rubio (R) - No
To bring to the floor an appropriations bill for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2014. The vote was 54-43, meaning the bill failed to receive the 60 necessary to end debate.
• Nelson (D) - Yes
• Rubio (R) - No
Previewing a battle in Congress expected this fall over the federal budget and a potential government shutdown, Republicans in the Senate on Thursday effectively killed a $54 billion spending bill for transportation and housing projects.
All but one Republican voted against the measure, denying it the 60 votes it needed to advance past a procedural hurdle.
Blockage of the Senate’s first appropriations bill for the coming fiscal year, along with a decision on Wednesday by Republicans in the House to halt consideration of their own transportation funding measure, sends Congress back to the drawing board to find a way to agree on spending and taxes.
Coming as Congress departs for a five-week recess, it marked the failure of a much-touted effort to overcome deep fiscal divisions between the two parties.
When Congress returns from a five-week recess in September, lawmakers will have just nine legislative days to craft a stop-gap funding measure to keep government agencies from shutting down as the new fiscal year gets under way Oct. 1.
Just one Republican senator — Susan Collins of Maine — voted to advance the transportation measure.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called on his party to block the bill, saying Democrats were trying to spend far more than would be allowed under across-the-board “sequester” spending cuts.
Those cuts were set in motion by a 2011 budget deal after Congress failed to agree on other deficit-reduction measures. They went into effect in March and are now causing hundreds of thousands of temporary layoffs at government agencies and defense contractors.
“We needed to indicate that we’d keep our word” to maintain spending cuts, McConnell said, explaining the vote. The Kentucky senator dismissed suggestions that a primary re-election challenge he faces from a tea party-backed candidate influenced his stance on the issue.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., complained that Senate Republican leaders “threw a tantrum” in blocking the bill.
House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday publicly acknowledged for the first time that the 12 spending bills would not be passed by Sept. 30 and said a short-term funding extension “would probably be in the nation’s interest.” Congress has relied on such extensions for the past three years because it has been unable to agree on a budget.
But even a short-term spending measure will require the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-led House to find a way to replace or at least reduce the sequester cuts. They face a $91 billion gap between their top-line spending levels, and even deeper differences on spending for various domestic programs such as community development grants and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Congress a few weeks later faces another, potentially more consequential deadline to raise the $16.7 trillion federal borrowing limit. Failure to do so would ultimately lead to a default on U.S. debt repayments and a possible global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, a group of eight Republican senators led by Georgia’s Johnny Isakson held their second meeting in as many days with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in an effort to find a path forward on the budget.
Both sides have been tight-lipped about the talks, but have acknowledged that little progress has been made. Still, the meetings are the only regular, open communication line between the Obama administration and Congress on fiscal issues.
One Republican aide said the group plans to stay in touch during the August break by telephone.
