Senate

This blog post is a part of NWLC’s Mother’s Day 2012 blog series. For all our Mother’s Day posts, please click here.

As you probably know, Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday. Here at the National Women’s Law Center, we care a lot about mothers – not only our own (although you’re totally awesome, Mom!), but also the millions of women across the country who are trying to raise kids, care for their own aging parents, climb the career ladder, save for retirement, and protect their health – often all at the same time, and often with the odds stacked against them. My work in the Family Economic Security program focuses on advancing policies that help low-income women and their families make ends meet, and if you’ve seen any of my blog posts lately, you’ll know one policy change that could really help working moms is an increase in the minimum wage. 

Women are nearly two-thirds of workers making the federal minimum wage or less. Many of them are mothers struggling to support their families on earnings of less than $15,000 a year for full time work. And on top of their tough jobs – waiting tables, caring for children and homebound seniors, cleaning homes and offices – many face the nearly impossible task of finding affordable care for their children while they’re at work, often without a single paid sick day to fall back on in an emergency.

The Rebuild America Act, introduced by Senator Harkin (D-IA) in late March, would help address several challenges that low-income working moms face by raising the minimum wage, including the minimum cash wage for tipped workers; expanding funding for child care assistance; and guaranteeing paid sick days. Read more »

Today, the Senate confirmed two judges to district courts in Texas, Gregg Costa to the Southern District and David Guaderrama to the Western District. These individuals were nominated last September, ready for a Senate vote last December, and were confirmed by votes of 97-2 – hardly nominees that warranted nearly five months of delay, especially considering that one of the nominations was designated a judicial emergency. Especially especially considering that these nominees had the support of their home-state Republican Senators. Not a surprise, given the levels of obstruction by a determined minority in the Senate in recent years, but frustrating all the same.

Under the terms of a deal worked out last month by Senate leadership, two more district court nominees and one circuit court nominee will receive a vote on May 7. And that is where the March deal ends – unfortunately with a lot of ground left to cover. How much ground? I have spent a few evenings this week lightly assisting my third-grade daughter with her math homework, so the following is inspired by our running conversation:

There are 34 individuals nominated to vacancies on federal courts. 22 of them are ready for a Senate vote (extra credit: six of them are women), and at least eight or nine more will be ready for votes by the end of June. The Senate has 11 weeks when it will be in session before it takes its long break in August.  Three nominees will get votes on May 7. How many judges would the Senate have to schedule votes on per week in order to clear this backlog by August? Read more »

Happy Tax Day! I realize paying taxes is not something most people relish, but when I have to send a check to Uncle Sam, I try to focus on all of the important services my tax dollars support. And I try not to think about the people who make a whole lot more money than I do but pay a smaller share of their incomes in taxes – like, say, the 22,000 millionaires who paid less than 15 percent of their income in federal taxes in 2009. (Even if you paid only a few dollars in federal income tax, that’s more than the 1,470 households with incomes over $1 million in 2009 who paid zero dollars in federal income tax.)

I know I’m not the only one who believes it’s wrong for some millionaires and billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than many middle-income families pay. Last night, 51 Senators (49 Democrats, 1 Independent and 1 Republican) voted to begin debate on the Paying a Fair Share Act (S. 2230), often referred to as the “Buffett Rule,” which would require households with incomes above $1 million to pay at least a 30 percent income tax rate (with a phase-in for incomes between $1 million and $2 million). Read more »

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed three more district court judges as part of last week's Senate deal to confirm 14 nominees by May 7. The Senate confirmed Ronnie Abrams, for the Southern District of New York, by a 96-2 vote, and Rudolph Contreras, for the District of Columbia, by an unopposed voice vote. David Nuffer, for the District of Utah, received a 96-2 vote and filled a vacancy considered a judicial emergency.

Last night, Senator Harry Reid took one giant step forward towards clearing the backlog of judicial nominations. As you’ll recall, the Senate’s recent track record on confirming judges is less than stellar: twenty nominees were left waiting for votes at the end of last year, and the Senate has only confirmed 7 judges in 2012. With 83 vacancies in the federal judiciary, 35 of which are judicial emergencies, what possible justification could there be for leaving twenty-two nominees waiting for votes? Just ask Senator Lee of Utah, who has flat-out stated that he is holding up judicial (and executive branch) nominations in retaliation for President Obama’s recess appointments to the Consumer Protection board and the NLRB in January…

But I digress. So what has Senator Reid done to move nominations forward? Yesterday evening, he filed cloture petitions on 17 district court nominations. It will be timely to start voting on the first of these petitions, for the nomination of Gina Groh to a district court seat in West Virginia that has been vacant since 2006, on Wednesday morning. After that, the rest of the 17 will be taken up one at a time.  If the cloture vote is successful, then the Senate will schedule a yes-or-no vote on the nomination.* Read more »

The U.S. Senate has only confirmed a handful of judges in 2012 — despite the fact that over ten percent of judicial seats are vacant and people around the country are waiting for justice. Why? Because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to allow yes-or-no votes on judicial nominees. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently stated that he's ready to take extraordinary steps to move nominees, if a deal isn't reached soon.

We need to make the most of this opportunity: tell your Senators to vote on ALL judicial nominees in March.

Eighteen judicial nominees are currently waiting for a vote, twelve of whom were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2011. Most of these nominees are individuals who would add sorely needed diversity to the federal bench, including by gender diversity. These are highly qualified nominees with bipartisan support. The only thing standing between them and a yes-or-no vote is a minority of Senators determined to slow down the confirmation process.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Tell your Senators to call on their leadership to schedule votes on judicial nominees this work period. Tell them you expect votes on ALL pending judicial nominees. Read more »

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Margo Brodie to a seat on the Eastern District of New York, by a vote of 86-2. In case you were wondering, the two “No” votes were by Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who has vowed to make the judicial confirmation process as difficult as possible in retaliation for President Obama’s January recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. Now-Judge Brodie, the 59^th female judge confirmed during the Obama Administration, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee without a single vote in opposition. Notwithstanding, she waited for a Senate vote for almost five months – for no apparent reason. Just another example of unprecedented obstruction at a time when 84 seats (including 33 judicial emergencies) remain vacant in the federal judiciary. Read more »

Yesterday, there was an agreement to vitiate the cloture petition on the nomination of Jesse Furman to the Southern District of New York. In plain English, that means that the Senate minority decided that it was a bad idea to filibuster a district court nominee who was unanimously voted out of committee, especially after faux-filibustering Adalberto Jordan, a Cuban-American nominee to the Eleventh Circuit, a few days earlier. Read more »

The handful of Senators hell-bent on obstruction of judicial nominees is at it again: they have refused to consent to a yes-or-note vote on a nominee to a district court seat on the Southern District of New York, Jesse Furman. As a result, Senator Reid has filed a cloture petition on the nomination, with a vote expected tomorrow morning or early afternoon. Read more »

If a vote to filibuster an appellate court judicial nominee fails 89-5, but Senator Rand Paul insists on 30 hours of debate before a yes-or-no confirmation vote, does that count as beating a filibuster? Read more »