Sen. Grassley may take up ranking member slot at Judiciary

[Administrator2]

There are strong indications (but nothing fully confirmed) that Sen. Grassley will be taking the ranking member slot at Judiciary, and of course relinquish his ranking member position at Finance.

[Alabaman]

OK... so?

[hsingh82]

so... that sucks

[ksrk]

Wonder what this is reward for? Effective protectionism or gross misrepresentation of facts?

[mhtanim]

Wonder what this is reward for? Effective protectionism or gross misrepresentation of facts?

Hahaha.. well said...

[mhtanim]

There are strong indications (but nothing fully confirmed) that Sen. Grassley will be taking the ranking member slot at Judiciary, and of course relinquish his ranking member position at Finance.

His idea about fixing the economy may be just to stop H-1B.

[gc28262]

There are strong indications (but nothing fully confirmed) that Sen. Grassley will be taking the ranking member slot at Judiciary, and of course relinquish his ranking member position at Finance.

Wasn't this the post held by Mr Steve King ? If so, it won't make much difference.

[sunny1000]

Wasn't this the post held by Mr Steve King ? If so, it won't make much difference.

you are talking about 2 different chambers....Steve King is a member of the U.S House of Representatives and is the ranking member of Immigration SUB-committee within the House Judiciary Committee (for which Lamar Smith is the ranking member).

Grassley is a Senator (belonging to the U.S Senate).

[qasleuth]

OK... so?

Immigration sub-committee is under the Senate Judiciary Committee.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/about/subcommittees/index.cfm

And here is a sample of what Sen. Grassley has been doing while on the Finance Committee (ofcourse apart from what he has been proposing to do with H1/L1s)

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/04/30/a-break-for-pharma-grassley-may-leave-finance-panel/

[qasleuth]

Here is some additional info on how bills make their way through the House and Senate.

http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/US_Congress

Perhaps folks who still have doubts in participating in collective efforts and the power of a platform like IV will realize how important it is to participate.

[thepaew]

OK... so?

Enforcement!

It is a powerful position from where he can further his agenda.

[qasleuth]

Enforcement!

It is a powerful position from where he can further his agenda.

Enforcement is not the job of the committees...Committees pretty much draft bills...Quoting from IV Wiki:

"Each bill goes through several stages in each house. The first stage involves consideration by a committee. Most legislation is considered by standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a particular subject matter, such as Agriculture or Appropriations. The House has twenty standing committees; the Senate has sixteen. In some cases, bills may be sent to select committees, which tend to have more narrow jurisdictions than standing committees. Each standing and select committee is led by a chair (who belongs to the majority party) and a ranking member (who belongs to the minority party). Committees are permitted to hold hearings and collect evidence when considering bills. They may also amend the bill, but the full house holds the power to accept or reject committee amendments. After considering and debating a measure, the committee votes on whether it wishes to report the measure to the full house. "

[thepaew]

They also have an oversight role. They have subpoena power and must confirm some administration appointments. I would say that adds up to a lot.

Remember what Zoe Lofgren was able to do for the community from her perch in the house. Now imagine Grassley-clones in similar positions.

Enforcement is not the job of the committees...Committees pretty much draft bills...Quoting from IV Wiki:

"Each bill goes through several stages in each house. The first stage involves consideration by a committee. Most legislation is considered by standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a particular subject matter, such as Agriculture or Appropriations. The House has twenty standing committees; the Senate has sixteen. In some cases, bills may be sent to select committees, which tend to have more narrow jurisdictions than standing committees. Each standing and select committee is led by a chair (who belongs to the majority party) and a ranking member (who belongs to the minority party). Committees are permitted to hold hearings and collect evidence when considering bills. They may also amend the bill, but the full house holds the power to accept or reject committee amendments. After considering and debating a measure, the committee votes on whether it wishes to report the measure to the full house. "

[qasleuth]

They also have an oversight role. They have subpoena power and must confirm some administration appointments. I would say that adds up to a lot.

Remember what Zoe Lofgren was able to do for the community from her perch in the house. Now imagine Grassley-clones in similar positions.

I am totally with you. It is a powerful position which can be used at times for partisan purposes. I just wanted to point out that it does not have 'enforement' authority directly but can certainly question those people in authority as to why they did not enforce. Go figure.

[eb3_nepa]

Once again the Obama adminstration comes to our "rescue"!

[qasleuth]

Once again the Obama adminstration comes to our "rescue"!

Do you even know how this works ?
wait, let me guess. Arlen Specter defects to become a democrat because Obama twisted his arm to vote in favor of the rescue package thus causing him to be 20 points behind his rival republican in the PA Senate primary. As Specter became a democrat, he has to resign from his post on the judiciary. Grassley even though wants to be on the finance committe because a lot of things on the health reform front are coming up but is kinda forced to get onto the Judiciary committee (maybe because of lobbying from Pharma companies) but that somehow is related to Obama again. Excellent !

[krishnam70]

There are strong indications (but nothing fully confirmed) that Sen. Grassley will be taking the ranking member slot at Judiciary, and of course relinquish his ranking member position at Finance.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/01/specters-defection-help-republicans-block-souters-potential-replacement/

He is not the only contender though and more over from the article it sounded only as a minority vote to pass bills. I do not know how he could be influential in writing or espousing bills on his own without the rest of the democratic votes to support it :)

- cheers
kris

[thepaew]

The Hill reporting:

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill.

Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reached the deal that will allow the Alabama Republican to take over for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), whose departure from the GOP last week left the committee without a ranking member.

Under terms of the deal, Sessions will serve as ranking member until the 112th Congress, when he will take over the ranking member post on the Senate Budget Committee. Current Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) is retiring at the end of the 111th Congress.

Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, will then become ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

Last week, Grassley had enlisted the help of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in positioning himself for the top slot on the committee. Under the deal floated then, Hatch would have taken over Judiciary for the remainder of the 111th, with Grassley taking the helm once his tenure on Finance expired.

The seven Republicans who remain on the Judiciary Committee after Specter's departure will meet to vote on Sessions's ascension early this week. Once they do, the decision goes to the full Republican Conference, which usually ratifies decisions the committee makes. Sources could not recall a ranking member vote made by a committee that was not, in the end, ratified by the full conference.

The move is likely to please conservative organizations around Washington who are gearing up for a fight over the eventual nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. The departure of Specter, who had long been one of the leading GOP voices on judicial appointees, had robbed the Republican conference of an obvious spokesman.

Conservative groups, who have already held conference calls to begin organizing a response to President Obama's eventual nominee, were wary of putting Grassley atop the Judiciary Committee if a fight were to break out. The organizations viewed Sessions as the better spokesman, and more likely to lead the Republican charge in questioning the nominee.

Though Republicans are likely to face a filibuster-proof Democratic majority when the nominee heads to the Senate, conservative opposition groups said they would push senators to ask tough questions, in line with those Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito faced when they underwent confirmation hearings.

Leading conservative legal strategists have admitted they have little chance of pursuing a filibuster — even facing only a slim deficit, Democrats were unable to block either Roberts or Alito — though that has not stopped them from gathering intelligence on leading contenders for the nomination.

Already, those groups have spread around opposition research on top contenders like Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh.

There are strong indications (but nothing fully confirmed) that Sen. Grassley will be taking the ranking member slot at Judiciary, and of course relinquish his ranking member position at Finance.