Gridlock takes brief holiday in the House, grips the Senate amid warfare over Obama nominees

WASHINGTON – A budget agreement between key Republicans and Democrats. Even President Barack Obama was on board. All without anyone threatening to repeal this or shut down that.

Gridlock, however briefly, took an early holiday in the bitterly polarized, Republican-run House.

But across the Capitol, the high-minded Senate remains in the grip of some of the worst partisan warfare in its history after majority Democrats curbed the Republicans’ power. A round-the-clock talkathon is the result, putting no one in the mood for co-operation. Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to shorten the Senate’s cherished Christmas vacation if need be.

A Republican called his bluff. “What’s new about that? What’s even threatening about that?” challenged Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb.

Traditionally effective prods to action are often less so in the divided, crisis-managed Congress. Lawmakers have lurched from sequester to shutdown over spending, national health care and more in the two years since Republicans won control of the House with a sizable group of newcomers reluctant to compromise. Their approach proved costly — to the nation’s credit rating, to Congress’ standing among voters and to the GOP, which took the brunt of public blame for the partial government shutdown in October.

The scene has been no better in the Senate. What remained of that chamber’s deliberative nature blew apart last month when majority Democrats, citing GOP obstructionism, curtailed the Republicans’ power to block some presidential nominees. Republicans have tried this week to do what they can to protest, but Reid’s slate of 11 nominations didn’t appear in peril. Early Thursday morning, the Senate approved the first of those, voting 51-44 to confirm Cornelia “Nina” Pillard to the influential D.C. Circuit court.

Still, with the 2014 midterm election year fast approaching, there’s was something unexpected this week: Instead of the standoffs, demands and disrespect that have become routine, key Republicans and Democrats announced a budget deal. Authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and quickly endorsed by Obama, the agreement would avert another government shutdown in January and reverse $63 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. It would offset the higher spending with $85 billion over a decade from higher fees and modest curbs on government benefit programs.

What’s more, House conservatives didn’t kill it outright, although some grumbled about the spending levels. Liberals, meanwhile, complained that the deal would not include an extension of unemployment benefits set to expire Dec. 28 for 1.3 million Americans.

But the deal survived the day.

The negotiators spoke Wednesday of finding common ground, however narrow, in the pursuit of a larger goal.

“On balance, my view is this is a step forward,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “A small one, but a step forward.”

Ryan told the House Rules Committee, “We have shown that we can work together.”

In the Senate, it wasn’t immediately clear whether Republican conservatives would follow their House counterparts and grudgingly accept the Ryan-Murray budget, or rebel against it.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who like Ryan is counted among his party’s presidential contenders, criticized the deal. “‘I think to walk away from the already agreed-upon reductions in spending that were so difficult to achieve, I think opens the floodgates that really threaten to put us right back in these spending habits and really, we’re going to continue to have a government that spends more money than it takes in,” he said.

In any case, GOP senators were focused Wednesday and early Thursday on doing what they could to protest the Democrats’ change in Senate rules. On Nov. 21, Democrats pared the threshold for stopping filibusters from 60 votes to 50 — allowing filibusters to be cut off by a simple majority for the first time since 1975. The lower threshold applies to nearly all presidential nominations but does not affect nominated Supreme Court justices or legislation.

On Monday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., objected to Reid’s request for unanimous approval of 76 nominees, including Janet Yellen, Obama’s choice to head the Federal Reserve. Also on the list are Jeh Johnson, Obama’s choice for Homeland Security secretary, and Deborah Lee James, for secretary of the Air Force. Most of the nominations, though, are for middle or lower-level posts like ambassadors and federal judges.

On Tuesday, Republicans invoked a little-known rule to postpone a committee vote on the nomination of John Koskinen, Obama’s choice to head the Internal Revenue Service.

Reid had set in motion the votes for 11 of the nominees, most non-controversial. Late Wednesday, he and asked for unanimous consent to waive some of the required debate time and begin voting at 9 a.m. EST Thursday morning. Republicans objected, and an all-night talkathon began. If Republicans refuse to give up their allotted debate time, the Senate could be in session continuously into Saturday — or longer.

“If we have to work through Christmas, we’re going to do that,” Reid blustered from the Senate floor.

“The Republicans are wanting to waste more of this body’s time, this country’s time,” he added. Senate aides carted in Listerine, fruit, chocolate and mints for what appeared to be a long night ahead. “We are here … looking at each other, doing basically nothing as we have done for vast amounts of time because of the Republicans’ obstructionism.”

“This isn’t about obstructionism,” fired back Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. “You limited our rights.”