Tag: Charles Ellis Schumer

Senate Republicans on Wednesday used a controversial procedural tactic called the “nuclear option” to change the chamber's rules to make it easier to confirm lower-level Trump nominees. The effort, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, comes after Republicans failed to adopt a resolution to change the chamber's rules so that non-Cabinet level executive and district court nominations would face only two hours of floor debate rather than 30 before a confirmation vote. The Senate's action on Wednesday lasted through the afternoon. The chamber first voted 51-48 largely along party lines to change its rules to slash debate time for sub-Cabinet level executive branch nominees, and took the same action, also mostly on party lines, in the early evening for district court judges. “We cannot set this new precedent that the Senate minorities will systematically keep an administration understaffed down to the least controversial nominees anytime they wish somebody else had won the election.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the floor vote, “I am sorry, so sorry, my Republican colleagues have gone along with Senator McConnell's debasement of the Senate. To do this for such blatantly political ends is simply unworthy of this institution." In 2013, Democrats used the move to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to confirm executive branch and non-Supreme Court judicial nominations under President Barack Obama. Democrats opposed Wednesday's action, arguing it would reduce the role of debate in the Senate and diminish the minority party's power, making its operations more like those of the House. McConnell has made confirming judges nominated by President Donald Trump a priority during Trump's first term. The rule change will also help Republicans confirm other Trump nominees who have yet to receive a full Senate vote.

By Betty Jean Grant As an informed citizen, one has an obligation and a duty to protect the public’s trust in its government, all public agencies and to abide by the rules and regulations put in place to make sure these policies are adhered to. There have been at least five articles and two editorials published in The News over the past month detailing the irregularities and possible unapproved activities of the Western New York Community Action Organization’s board of directors and its lawyer and legal adviser. All of these published reports and not one peep out of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown or even our U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Not one word of concern from Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes or State Sen. Timothy Kennedy, who in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee was instrumental in recommending former comptroller Mark Schroeder to the long-vacant position of state commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. It is also troubling that the person who was endorsed by the Democratic Party to be the next city comptroller, and who will be responsible for oversight and for conducting audits of the CAO, is a personal friend and political ally of Mayor Brown, Sen. Kennedy and the CEO of the Community Action Organization. What is mind-boggling is that this individual was just appointed to this CAO board to replace the improperly fired board members who called for the audit in the first place. At a time when precious dollars to fight Buffalo’s poverty rate are decreasing or are being eliminated, we cannot have a situation where politically connected agencies and their managers are held to a different standard than the rest of us. The four longtime board members who were removed and the several honest and brave former CAO employees who were fired should be commended for coming forward in their effort to be the stewards of resources that are desperately needed. This region cannot afford to disregard or to make light of what these courageous women have brought forth and determined to be improprieties in the management of an agency that is in charge on tens of millions of dollars allocated to Western New York to increase the living standards of the poorest among us. Betty Jean Grant is a former member of the Erie County Legislature, from which she retired in 2017.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday issued his first veto, rejecting legislation to overturn his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southwestern border. The bill had attracted significant Republican support in Congress, a rare and notable departure from partisan solidarity. “Today, I am vetoing this resolution,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Mr. Barr said the president’s emergency order was “clearly authorized under the law” and “solidly grounded in law.” The veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which almost certainly does not have enough votes for an override. That means Mr. Trump’s declaration will remain in effect. “It is no surprise that the president holds the rule of law and our Constitution in minimal regard,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement. “There is no emergency; Congress has refused to fund his wall multiple times; Mexico won’t pay for it; and a bipartisan majority in both chambers just voted to terminate his fake emergency.” To that, Speaker Nancy Pelosi added, “The House and Senate resoundingly rejected the president’s lawless power grab, yet the president has chosen to continue to defy the Constitution, the Congress and the will of the American people.” Mr. Trump has long insisted that there was a security and humanitarian crisis at the border with Mexico, an assertion that was undercut by Mr. Trump himself when he acknowledged that he could have waited to issue a declaration. On Thursday, a dozen Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting to overturn Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, 59 to 41. I said, ‘When I need your vote, I’m going to let you know.’ I didn’t need the vote because we all knew it was going to be a veto, and they’re not going to be able to override. The president said on Friday that there was nothing less than an “invasion” of the United States by migrants, and he added that so many of them had been apprehended that there was “nowhere left to hold all of the people that we’re capturing.” Even if Congress fails to override the veto, the emergency declaration is already drawing court challenges.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday issued his first veto, rejecting legislation to overturn his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southwestern border. The bill had attracted significant Republican support in Congress, a rare and notable departure from partisan solidarity. “Today, I am vetoing this resolution,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Mr. Barr said the president’s emergency order was “clearly authorized under the law” and “solidly grounded in law.” The veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which almost certainly does not have enough votes for an override. That means Mr. Trump’s declaration will remain in effect. “It is no surprise that the president holds the rule of law and our Constitution in minimal regard,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement. “There is no emergency; Congress has refused to fund his wall multiple times; Mexico won’t pay for it; and a bipartisan majority in both chambers just voted to terminate his fake emergency.” To that, Speaker Nancy Pelosi added, “The House and Senate resoundingly rejected the president’s lawless power grab, yet the president has chosen to continue to defy the Constitution, the Congress and the will of the American people.” Mr. Trump has long insisted that there was a security and humanitarian crisis at the border with Mexico, an assertion that was undercut by Mr. Trump himself when he acknowledged that he could have waited to issue a declaration. On Thursday, a dozen Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting to overturn Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, 59 to 41. I said, ‘When I need your vote, I’m going to let you know.’ I didn’t need the vote because we all knew it was going to be a veto, and they’re not going to be able to override. The president said on Friday that there was nothing less than an “invasion” of the United States by migrants, and he added that so many of them had been apprehended that there was “nowhere left to hold all of the people that we’re capturing.” Even if Congress fails to override the veto, the emergency declaration is already drawing court challenges.