New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, center, will have an expanded leadership team behind him next year. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
The Senate’s leadership elections went off without a hitch Wednesday, with victorious Republicans keeping their top echelon intact.
Democrats elevated Charles E. Schumer to the role of minority leader for the next Congress, as anticipated, but the most interesting development might be that the Brooklyn lawmaker is going to need a bigger meeting table.
In a scene on Capitol Hill in the new movie "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," there are numerous fictional senators waiting to hear Superman testify only to be blown up by the evil Lex Luthor.
But Sen. Purrington looked familiar to those on the Hill because it was Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is also a devoted fan of Batman comics and has used the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel to help further causes he has supported in the Senate.
From left, Leahy, Lynch and Grassley at the Wednesday hearing. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
The bitter standoff over the next Supreme Court nominee spilled into a Senate hearing on Wednesday, foreshadowing how the conflict could permeate the Judiciary Committee's business to come.
Panel ranking member Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., used his opening remarks at a hearing on Department of Justice oversight to scold Republicans for deciding not to give President Barack Obama's upcoming Supreme Court nominee a hearing or vote. Republicans announced their decision shortly after Justice Antonin Scalia's death on Feb. 13, arguing the next president should fill the vacancy so that voters can have a say in the process.
Grassley, center, and Leahy, right, in better times. They are now arguing about when and where the Judiciary Committee should conduct its routine business. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Amid the ongoing dispute about how to handle an expected Supreme Court nomination, leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee now can't agree on when — or where — to hold a routine markup.
Ranking Democrat Patrick J. Leahy blasted the panel's chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, for scrapping the committee's agenda for another week. Among the bills up for review: a measure championed by GOP presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that would allow for revoking the U.S. citizenship from Americans who travel to fight for ISIS.
Lawmakers returned from a monthlong recess ready to ask Siri for advice, recite movie lines and pay tribute to their favorite Mexican restaurant.
Lawmakers spent the week vomiting, giving weather forecasts and “failing to communicate."
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