Submitted by: Edward Moore
By a vote of 261-116, the House of Representatives passed a bill rewriting Article II of the Constitution and divesting the Senate of the power to accept or reject the appointment of many presidential nominees.
Last year, the Senate passed the measure by a vote of 79-20, so it now goes to the desk of President Obama for his signature.
"Important positions will be filled faster, government agencies will be more capable of offering valuable services to their constituents, and the overall confirmation process will be more efficient,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Dozens of key management positions in the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Commerce, and Homeland Security (including the treasurer of the United States, the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, the director of the Office for Domestic Preparedness, and the assistant administrator of FEMA) will now be filled by presidential edict, without the need of the “advice and consent” of the Senate, a phrase specifically removed from the process in the text of the bill.
“Congress needs fewer ‘moderates’ and more people willing to adhere to principle and work to fix our fiscal mess. No serious observer unclouded by politics can dispute that if Congress does not pass pro-growth tax reform, curb entitlement spending and quickly pay down our crushing debt burden, we will end up like Greece.
