WASHINGTON — Senators yesterday reached a deal to avoid the dreaded “nuclear option” by agreeing to clear a batch of President Obama’s stalled executive nominations.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had threatened to bring on what some senators termed “Armageddon” in the Senate to beat back Republican filibusters of seven presidential nominees.
With the prospect of a reignited partisan war looming, Republicans decided to back down and relented on the nominees.
In a face-saving compromise for the GOP, Obama will have to name two new picks to serve on the National Labor Relations Board, which was set to lose its ability to function next month for lack of membership.
“Everybody said nobody wants to come to Armageddon here,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who had multiple talks with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — credited as the deal’s key broker — to defuse the situation.
The first nominee to move forward was Richard Cordray, picked to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He got 71 votes on a procedural motion to end a GOP-led filibuster.
Reid had threatened to jam through a rules change with a procedural move requiring a bare majority to end the filibusters instead of getting the 67 votes needed for a formal rules change.