Despite losing his role as the majority leader, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is looking to find ways to block Democrats from creating laws that don’t suit their conservative views.
On Thursday, McConnell threatened to filibuster the organization agreement, which specifies how many Senators from each party sit on committees and who chairs them.
CNN’s Manu Raju notes if there is no power-sharing agreement, “the Senate will operate under the rules of the last Congress when the GOP controlled Senate majority and held committee chairs.”
In a sign of how Biden's Cabinet nominees face a bumpy road if there's no power-sharing agreement in the Senate, Republicans are still chairing key committees and have the power to set the agenda until such an agreement is reached.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 21, 2021
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That means that McConnell and the GOP could block Democrats from getting anything done in the Senate, including selecting President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees, according to Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis
"If the talk of unity and common ground is to have meaning…" – McConnell on his demand that Democrats commit to preserving the filibuster rule.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) January 21, 2021
Democrats fired back at McConnell for his threats.
Under the false cloak of “unity,” McConnell is making “unprecedented, wacky, counterproductive” demands, according to at least one Democratic Senator, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), the Chief Deputy Whip.
McConnell is threatening to filibuster the Organizing Resolution which allows Democrats to assume the committee Chair positions. It’s an absolutely unprecedented, wacky, counterproductive request. We won the Senate. We get the gavels.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 21, 2021
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) slammed McConnell’s hypocrisy also:
So after Mitch McConnell changed the Senate rules at a blistering pace during his 6 years in charge, he is threatening to filibuster the Senate's organizing resolution unless the Democratic majority agrees to never change the rules again.
Huh.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 21, 2021
Mother Jones’s Ari Berman, one of the nation’s top voting rights experts, also weighed in:
Mitch McConnell is literally preventing Democrats from taking over the Senate after they won
He’s filibustering to keep filibuster
Dems can’t let him nullify Biden’s agenda like he did to Obama
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 21, 2021
