McCain Announces Compromise to Avoid Showdown Over Judicial Nominees
By William Branigin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 23, 2005
9:05 PM
Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators announced this evening they had reached a compromise designed to prevent a showdown over President Bush's judicial nominations.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking for the group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, announced the agreement at a news conference at 7:40 p.m.
Under the deal, the Democrats agreed to accept cloture votes, and thus up-or-down ballots, on three of President Bush's judicial nominees: Priscilla R. Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William H. Pryor Jr. They also agreed that filibusters should be used to block Senate action on nominees only "under extraordinary circumstances."
In return, the Republicans pledged not to support the so-called "nuclear option" to end the ability of the minority to use filibusters.
The group of senators, including Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said the Senate leadership had signaled it would go along with the compromise.
McCain said the agreement would avert a Senate crisis and "pull the institution back from a precipice." He said the alternative would have caused lasting damage to the Senate.
McCain said the 14 senators pledged to vote to cut off debate on the nominations of Brown, Owen and Pryor to seats on U.S. courts of appeal. That would allow the nominees, who had previously been blocked by Democratic filibuster threats, to receive votes on the Senate floor and be confirmed by simple majorities.
The 14 made no such commitment in the cases of two other conservative judicial nominees, William G. Myers III and Henry Saad. McCain said the senators in the group could vote for or against cutting off debate on their nominations.
But the two-page agreement, signed by the 14 senators, also said that "nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist."
Because of the makeup of the Senate -- 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent -- the 14 represent a decisive voting bloc.
McCain added, "We will try to do everything in our power to prevent filibusters in the future." The accord was "in the finest traditions of the Senate: trust, respect and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority," he said. "I believe that goodwill will prevail."
The Senate minority leader, Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), welcomed the agreement and hailed it as a victory for "reason" and "responsibility." But he also used some harsher, partisan language, saying that "abuse of power" by the White House and Republican lawmakers would no longer be tolerated.
Addressing Bush, Reid said, "Your attempt to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control is over."
"The nuclear option is off the table," Reid said. "The Senate can work as the Senate."
The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said the agreement "falls short" of the principle he has stressed that each nominee deserves an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. But he did not say that he would take action to oppose the accord.
"It has some good news and it has some disappointing news, and it will require careful monitoring," Frist said. He said he was "very pleased" that Owen, Brown and Pryor would receive confirmation votes.
Other signatories to the deal were Republican senators John Warner of Virginia, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. Democratic signatories included Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii.
"In a Senate that is increasingly polarized, the bipartisan center held," said Lieberman.
"The Senate is back in business," echoed Graham.
Word of the agreement came after leaders of both parties indicated they expected the dispute to come to a head tomorrow, and Bush reiterated his insistence on "an up-or-down vote" for his nominees.
Earlier in the day, as senators trooped to the floor for a fourth day of speeches for and against Bush's choice of Owen for a federal appeals judgeship, negotiators convened in McCain's office in the last-ditch effort to work out a compromise to avert the so-called nuclear option maneuver.
Without the compromise, it had been expected that the leadership of the majority Republicans would move tomorrow to effectively end the minority Democrats' ability to use filibusters to block judicial nominees. If that step were taken, Democrats have warned, they would shut down most business in a chamber that operates largely by unanimous consent.
A vote on a motion to cut off debate had been scheduled to be held about noon tomorrow, Frist announced.
If at least 60 of the Senate's 100 members voted for cloture, the body could then proceed to a vote on Owen. If not, Frist planned to make a point of order that debate on a judicial nominee should be limited and ask Vice President Cheney, as the presiding officer of the Senate, for a ruling. That would lead to a vote that, if Frist prevailed, would effectively set a new precedent by requiring a simple majority, instead of 60 votes, to end judicial filibusters. This would also circumvent the Senate requirement of a two-thirds vote -- 67 senators -- to change the body's rules.
In a floor speech this morning, Frist said that "cloture would yield a fair up-or-down vote." He said that "the American people expect us to act" on nominees and described the choice as being between "judicial obstruction or fair up-or-down votes."
Reid, the Senate minority leader, asserted that Owen has already had at least three votes on the Senate floor. He said the votes were on "whether or not we should stop debating her" and that three times the answer has been no.
In an appearance at the White House with the visiting Afghan president this morning, Bush rejected Democrats' efforts to prevent his nominees from receiving a vote by the full Senate.
He said he has chosen nominees who "will bring great credit to the bench" and that he has been "consistent with judicial philosophy in my picks." Bush added, "And I expect them to get an up-or-down vote. That's what I expect. And I think the American people expect that, as well. People ought to have a fair hearing, and they ought to get an up-or-down vote on the floor."
During today's floor debate, Byrd of West Virginia implored fellow senators to "step back from the precipice" and refrain from triggering the nuclear option. "I'm deeply troubled," he said. "I'm almost sick about it."
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) charged that "the extreme right of the Republican Party is attempting to hijack the federal courts."
But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) argued that Republicans are only trying to restore the traditional requirement of a simple-majority vote for the confirmation of judges. "No one on our side of the aisle has even suggested that minority rights be overrun," she said.