July 16, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in response to a limited number of Senate Republicans agreeing to invoke cloture on Obama nominee for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray, Gina McCarthy for the Environmental Protection Agency, Thomas Perez for the Labor Department and not to block future Obama nominees to the National Labor Relations Board:
“These rogue Republican senators have supposedly ‘saved’ the filibuster — by apparently promising never to use it again on executive nominees.
“They even apparently agreed not to block nominees to the National Labor Relations Board who have not even been nominated yet nor faced a single committee hearing. They have handed President Obama absolute discretion over his next nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. This appears to be carte blanche for Obama to nominate the most radical members he can find.
“The filibuster on executive nominees has been eliminated in all but name only. That is, until Democrats again find themselves in the minority. Then suddenly it will be a legitimate vehicle to block ‘radical’ nominees. This is the type of compromise only Washington, D.C. could produce, where Democrats threaten to eliminate the filibuster on executive nominees unless Republicans promise not to use it.
“What exactly were these Republicans ‘saving’? They might as well have just changed the rules if they never intend to invoke them to block radical nominees.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 103 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.
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