Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) argued Wednesday that senators today aren’t bound by a bipartisan agreement during the 2005-2006 Congress that said presidential nominees “should be filibustered only under extraordinary circumstances.”
“Another example of filibuster fraud,” Hatch said in a floor speech, “is the claim that the Senate today is bound by a 2006 agreement among a group of senators who came to be known as the gang of 14.”
Hatch wasn’t a member of the gang of 14 that negotiated the deal — only five of them are still serving in the Senate. It prevented the Republican leadership at the time from scrapping the filibuster for certain nominations with a bare majority of votes.
The senator and other top Republicans are building a case for blocking all of President Obama’s nominees to fill three vacancies on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
