Rep. Marcia Fudge says U.S. Senate used filibuster to block nominations of women and minorities

Published November 21, 2013 at 4:40 PM

By Sabrina Eaton from the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Congressional Black Caucus chair Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Warrensville Heights, on Thursday accused Republicans in the U.S. Senate of filibustering a disproportionate number of President Obama's nominees, and applauded its Democratic majority for changing Senate rules to eliminate that option.

Fudge attended a press conference that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held as the U.S. Senate voted along party lines to allow nominees for executive appointments and federal judgeships to be confirmed by a majority of senators, instead of 60 votes. Its alteration of two centuries of precedent won't apply to Supreme Court nominations.

Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown voted for the change and Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman voted against it.

Although Fudge did not speak at Reid's press conference, she attended with other Congressional Black Caucus members to show the organization's support for the rule change.

Afterwards, she said that Obama has had more nominations filibustered than any other president. Before Obama's presidency, she said there were 86 filibustered nominations in the country's history, and there have been 82 since he entered the White House.

"What does that say to you that this one president has had almost as many people filibustered as have been filibustered in the history of the Senate of the United States?" she asked.

Fudge said most of the blocked nominees were women and minorities. Out of the 51 pending judicial nominations that have been blocked, she said 26 are female, 12 are African American, three are Asian American and two are Hispanic, she said.

Fudge had repeatedly objected to Senate obstruction of Congressional Black Caucus member Mel Watt's appointment to be director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Robert Wilkins' judicial nomination to the District of Columbia Circuit Court.
"There are very few people in this country who don't understand the concept of the majority rules," said Fudge. "Now, we are doing what America expects for us to do. Not only will the majority rule, but they will no longer be able to filibuster the president's executive nominees so we can move forward." 

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2013/11/rep_marcia_fudge_says_us_senat.html