Senate politics shut down some federal agencies

When Senate Republicans filibustered President Obama's nominee to a key consumer watchdog post this month, it was the first time in history the Senate blocked an appointment in an effort to effectively shut down an agency. It likely won't be the last. Already, Senate Republicans are threatening to hold up Obama's nominees to a number of posts overseeing elections, labor law and health care — and in each case, they aim to kill the agency outright. Senate Republicans say refusing to confirm a nominee is the only recourse they have left after Democrats pushed through legislation without listening to GOP concerns about transparency and accountability. Part of the problem is that Democrats have "created so many new agencies without Republican input," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "There's a whole bunch of new nominees or confirmable spots to have a debate over." In blocking the president's nomination of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Dec. 8, McConnell said, "We are not going to let the president put another unelected czar in place." By law, only the bureau's director can exercise the new powers granted under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last year. Without one, the bureau can't regulate payday lenders, debt collectors and credit-reporting agencies, for example. Confirmation battles in the Senate are nothing new, but the reasoning is. Never before had the Senate explicitly blocked a nominee to shut down an agency's business, says Don Ritchie, the Senate's official historian...more

Well, it ain't much...but at least its a start.