Word: congression
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...result of this increased use has been that in 2009, the Senate spent more days in session than in any other year in the previous decade. It held more Saturday and Sunday sessions than any Congress of the past 20 years. Altogether, Congress spent 1,420 hours in session—the third busiest year dating back to 1991. And yet, it passed fewer measures and public laws than in any year of the previous decade, with the exception...
Halfway through the current 111th Congress, the filibuster has already been invoked 74 times, putting it on pace to surpass the 110th Congress, which set the high mark with 139. That was more than double the mark set by the Democratic minority in the previous Congress, 68. By comparison, there were only 70 filibusters in the entire period between 1919 (when Senate rules were changed to allow supermajorities to end a filibuster...
...vote to alter the filibuster rules. Republicans threatened to go nuclear in 2005 in response to Democratic filibusters of a few of President Bush’s judicial nominees. For technical reasons, however, the constitutional option can’t be exercised until the start of a new Congress in 2011, thus offering no near-term solution to Democrats...
...party of “no.” If the Democrats emerge from the 2010 midterm elections battered but holding on to their majority, such a change would be highly implausible. (It would be extremely difficult to muster a simple majority for the change even in the current Congress.) If the election results are non-disastrous to the point of showing the tide turning in the Democrats’ direction, but (as is inevitable) the election still reduces their already inadequate majority, then they could try to strike a deal with Republicans to change the rules, using the nuclear...
About a year ago - with the wounds of the Bush Administration fresh, a new President surging into office on a wave of enthusiasm, and Democrats in control of the Oval Office and both houses of Congress for the first time since the mid-'90s - the elder statesmen of the conservative movement had reason to feel uneasy. "I don't want to say that was a crisis, but it certainly was the impetus for a great deal of reflection," says conservative strategist Ralph Reed. "I think we did in fact go into exile." The fruits of that reflection were on display...