Senate eyes cut in executive-branch jobs requiring Hill confirmation
Leadership aides said that the deal would reduce by 400 the number of Senate-confirmed positions in the government, now numbered at about 1,400.
Senate leaders will push to cut by about one-third the number of executive positions that need Senate confirmation, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on Thursday.
Leadership aides said that the deal would reduce by 400 the number of "Senate-confirmed" positions in the government, now numbered at about 1,400. According to a summary of the deal, the reductions would come through changes allowing presidents to appoint nominees to positions on federal boards and commissions without regulatory or policy-setting power, and to positions in such areas as public affairs and information technology.
Reid said that the step, one of several modest rules reforms agreed to by both parties, would come through legislation to be drafted by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine.
"Any steps they take toward streamlining the confirmation process is a good one, particularly for these smaller offices," said Sarah Binder, a Brookings Institution scholar who studies Senate procedure and the nominations process.
If the legislation passes, "a third is sizable," she said.
The agreement would also create a working group that would report back to the full Senate by April 30 on steps to simplify and streamline the paperwork that nominees are required to submit during the confirmation process.
Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also offered their backing for a proposal intended to strengthen an existing, but ineffective, rule that aims to force senators to disclose holds they place on bills and nominees in the Congressional Record. The proposed rules change is expected to receive a vote on Thursday and looks likely to pass based on the declared support of a supermajority of senators.
The provision, offered by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is intended to end "secret holds," although failure of past proposals to do so leaves experts skeptical that the change will alter the practice.
The leaders are also backing a rules proposal, set for a vote Thursday night, to allow mandatory waiving of the reading of amendments on the Senate floor, a time-wasting tactic, if the amendments have been posted online for 72 hours. That measure would not affect senators' ability to force the reading of bills. That measure also appears likely to pass, although its effect would be small.
"They strike me as very modest," Binder said of the secret holds and amendment-reading provisions.
Reid also cited a general agreement he reached with McConnell that Republicans will work to limit objections to motions to bring relatively uncontroversial bills to the floor if Reid allows amendments to those measure to be offered. The deal would not affect high-profile bills. It also depends on voluntary compliance by all 100 senators, because any member can object to a motion to proceed.
Senate Rules Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who negotiated the rules package with ranking member Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that the panel will continue to study other potential rules changes.
Reid and McConnell also agreed informally that any vote to change chamber rules requires the support of 67 senators. That is a repudiation of an argument by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and many senators in past Congresses that a simple majority can alter the rules in some circumstances.