Since the start of the 112th Congress, many Senators have publicly called for new measures to avoid the deadlock that stopped nearly all legislative work at the end of the last session. Two leading lawmakers are making a case on how partisanship hurts the effectiveness of Congress and how to address it.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) spoke about recent political debates today as proof that America’s role as a global leader is threatened by the discord on Capitol Hill. Senator Kerry just returned from a trip to Sudan and discussed the vote on Southern Sudan's independence referendum at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Switching the focus to domestic matters, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) shared his plans to overcome any attempts to stall the committee’s work, with judicial nominations ranking at the top of the agenda. Earlier this month, Senator Leahy issued a statement speaking out against the “unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominations” on the Senate floor last year.
Pointing to an urgent need to alleviate the rise in judicial vacancies, the chairman said he hoped the two sides could work together this year and approve the president’s nominees for federal courts.
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