Tag: Congress
Stevenson’s army, October 3
– Lawfare has a historical article on how earlier presidents concealed their illnesses.
– CRS has a background report on presidential disability.
– Law prof John Yoo argues that Speaker Pelosi is not “an officer of the United States” and thus cannot legally be in line for the presidency after the VP.
– Ezra Klein of Vox, whose analyses I often find excellent, has a thorough case against the Senate’s fiibuster.
I still disagree. Ending the filibuster would reinforce the tendencies toward making Congress like a parliament rather than a separate institution.
– WSJ says Russia has rejected latest US arms control proposals.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, September 25
The panel set up to recommend modernization measures for Congress has approved a bunch of suggestions.
SFRC had hearing on aspects of F35 sale to UAE.
Washingtonian notes DC statehood would require a Constitutional amendment
WOTR has article on US relations with Taiwan.
Next week we talk about the budget. It looks as if the president is trying to to turn limited pilot program/test authority into a nearly $7 billion giveaway of $200 cash cards for prescription drugs.
There’s a lot of discussion about Atlantic article warning of election disruption. Scary.
CFR has new report on what to do about Venezuela.
Many sites –Politico, Axios, FP and others — have good weekly posts on China. Politico’s is especially interesting this week.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, September 23
As you’ll learn when we discuss the Senate, there are many ways to obstruct and delay in addition to the filibuster. Democratic Leader Schumer invoked one Tuesday. The rule [XXVI, 5] requires unanimous consent for any committee to meet more than 2 hours after the full Senate has convened, and never after 2pm. This will limit Judiciary hearings on the Supreme Court nominee.
Meanwhile, candidates to become House Appropriations Chair in the next Congress are endorsing the return of earmarks.
Save the date: December 11 is when funding for the new fiscal year runs out, assuming the Senate agrees to the Continuing Resolution that passed the House with strong bipartisan support.
The Hill says DOD is planning full US withdrawal from Afghanistan by next May.
The National Security Adviser is pressuring DOD to add funds for the Navy. It’s unusual for someone in that position to do such budget stuff.
Politico says CIA is censoring and limiting what it send to WH about Russia
Lee Drutman, whose writings about interest groups I’ve assigned, says the US political parties are collapsing and some kind of transformation is coming.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, September 19
The death of Justice Ginsburg will confront the Senate with the task of choosing a successor. While the end to possible filibusters of such nominations makes it likely that Leader McConnell will be able to get approval of the president’s nominee before Thanksgiving, you can expect contentious debate, clashing Constitutional arguments, and parliamentary maneuvers. This CRS report has good background on the process. But note this historical point: Before 1916, the Judiciary Committee considered Supreme Court nominations behind closed doors. Thus, until that year, there are no entries in the “Public hearing date(s)” column. Rather, committee sessions on Court nominations typically were limited to committee members discussing and voting on a nominee in executive session, without hearing testimony from outside witnesses. In 1916, for the first time, the committee held open confirmation hearings on a Supreme Court nomination—that of Louis D. Brandeis to be an Associate Justice—at which outside witnesses (but not the nominee) testified. More days of public hearings (19) were held on the Brandeis nomination than on any Supreme Court nomination since. The Brandeis hearings, however, did not set immediately into place a new policy of open confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominations, since each of the next six nominations (during the years 1916 to 1923) was either considered directly by the Senate, without referral to the Judiciary Committee, or was acted on by the committee without the holding of confirmation hearings.
From 1925 to 1946, public confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominations became the more common, if not invariable, practice of the Judiciary Committee. In 1925, Harlan F. Stone became the first Supreme Court nominee to appear in person and testify at his confirmation hearings. During the next two decades, the Stone nomination was one of 11 Court nominations that received public confirmation hearings before either the full Judiciary Committee or a Judiciary subcommittee, while five other nominations did not receive public hearings. One of the five nominees not receiving a public confirmation hearing was Senator James F. Byrnes, whose nomination in 1941, as noted earlier, was considered directly by the Senate without referral to the Judiciary Committee. From the first Supreme Court appointments in 1789 to 2017, Presidents have made 162 nominations to the Court. Table 1 shows, in the “Final action by Senate or President” column, that the Senate confirmed 125 of these nominations, or roughly three-fourths. Of the 37 nominations that were not confirmed, 11 were rejected by the Senate (all in roll-call votes), 11 were withdrawn by the President, and 15 lapsed at the end of a session of Congress without a Senate vote cast on whether to confirm. The 37 nominations not confirmed by the Senate represented 32 individuals, some of whom were nominated more than once. Six individuals whose initial nominations were not confirmed were later renominated and confirmed for positions on the Court.
WSJ says the Saudi Royal Family is divided over policy toward Israel.
The other day I sent a story about how rich the Taliban is. WSJ today says ISIS is also flush with cash.
A think tank study says the Intelligence Community doesn’t really know what its customers want.
A Columbia law prof uses the occasion of the dedication of the memorial to Dwight Eisenhower on the National Mall to reflect on Ike’s view of war powers.
I think Eisenhower should be praised for insisting on congressional approval of major military actions.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, September 9
When I see a think tank or commission report that suggests better ways to make national security policy, I’m eager to share the ideas even if I’m skeptical of some of them. I spent 3 years working on the Project on National Security Reform, which produced an 800-page study with good ideas, only a few of which actually were put into place. I assign my spring course the excellent Process Makes Perfect report by Kori Schake and William Wechsler. And so when I saw the Less Art, More Science report by a group called FP21, I downloaded it for me and for you.
Since no authors were listed, I was curious and discovered FP21 is an offshoot of National Security Action, an organization of mostly careerist and Democratic appointees, many of whom I know and admire. The trouble with the Less Art, More Science report, however, is that it presumes that with more data and more strategic thinking, we will make better policy. I’m all for that approach, but I know from years of study that most big problems are too hard. The goals are multiple and priorities change and conflict [Strengthen the government but avoid corruption; build up the army and guarantee civilian control; punish human rights violators but don’t undermine US companies and their trade]. The report even had a template for policy memos that is sensible but could easily become a rigid checklist. Anyway, read it for the good parts.
Sen. Ben Sasse [R-Neb] has his own list of congressional reforms.
New America has report on “brain drain” of congressional staff.
FT says China is offering the Taliban roads for peace.
Australian insurgency expert says US is on brink of “incipient insurgency.”
Politico says USAID is shutting down its coronavirus task force; reasons unclear.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, September 7
What better proof that the US is far from a socialist country than the fact that we celebrate labor day, honoring workers and unions, in September, while much of the rest of the world does it on May 1st. Since I like to remind you of the availability of CRS reports on many topics, see this on the evolution of federal holidays.
[There’s other good stuff there, such as these short reports on export control reforms and China and coup-related restrictions on US foreign aid.]
Rosa Brooks reports on the election wargames she helped run that warn of enormous public unrest.
WaPo notes that the new 117th Congress will have freshman members from the political extremes of both parties.
Legal analyst disagrees with DOD IG report saying border deployments did not violate Posse comitatus act.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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