Block Party
This week a bunch of reporters in the Capitol gathered around Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley as he held forth about his meeting with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barring a remarkable departure from his professed beliefs, Hawley will vote against her.
Hawley has said he is keeping an open mind about her nomination. But he has also said he won’t vote for a nominee who doesn’t oppose Roe v. Wade and that he wants conservative Supreme Court Justices who hew strictly to the language in the Constitution when interpreting the law. Jackson passes neither of those tests.
On top of that, Hawley has opposed most of President Joe Biden’s nominees over the past year. He has supported exactly one of his judicial selections.
More than opposing them, he’s attempting to slow down their confirmation process.
Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Hawley has blocked nominees to the Departments of Defense and State, saying he will continue until he sees accountability from the Biden administration for the 13 soldiers killed in a terrorist bombing at the Kabul Airport as the U.S. was attempting to evacuate.
This week, he again objected to several Defense nominees on the floor of the Senate, again saying he wants someone in the Biden administration to be fired.
“This administration is careening from one crisis to another, endangering the security of the American people, endangering the security of the world,” he said.
Hawley gets the most attention for his nominee blockade, but he’s far from the only senator to use it as a tool to make demands on the Biden administration.
Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt vowed that he would obstruct the nomination of one of Biden’s selections for the Federal Trade Commission.
In a hearing last week, Blunt said he would continue to put a hold on the appointment of Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC until he feels the agency is “more responsive and more reasonable” in allowing Tractor Supply to buy a Missouri-based farm and ranch store called Orscheln Farm and Home.
Tractor Supply agreed to purchase Orscheln for $297 million, but Blunt said the FTC has been blocking the transaction. Blunt asked Bedoya, who is a professor at Georgetown Law School, about the transaction, but Bedoya said he did not think it was appropriate to comment on matters that were currently before the commission.
Blunt has pushed for the FTC to recognize the threat of online retailers to Orscheln’s business and said that if the company can’t compete it would have to close stores, which would cause further job loss in rural communities. He said the parties have been negotiating with the FTC for 10 months.
Last month, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran was among a group of Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee that refused to show up for a vote on five of Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
The boycott is specifically about one — Sarah Bloom Raskin, nominated to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision. Moran and his fellow Republicans are concerned that Raskin would use her role to limit credit for fossil fuel industries.
Raskin has been vocal about risks climate change poses to financial markets. It is part of the reason Democrats have nominated her to the position, hoping that she will help banks limit their exposure to climate disasters threatening their financial stability.
In her confirmation hearing, Moran asked Raskin if she believed she had a path to limit the oil and gas industry as a member of the Federal Reserve. She said she has not explored the issue and “would imagine there is no such path.”
Republicans have continued their blockade and Moran has said they would let the others go through if the Democrats dropped Raskin.
More from Missouri:
The Missouri Senate is once again in disarray. Ahead of a week-long spring break, a bipartisan group of Senators held a press conference to denounce the chamber’s Conservative Caucus, which has spent the session trying to tack hard-line language onto relatively non-controversial bills, bringing legislative business to a halt. Their latest attempt involved amending a sexual assault survivor’s bill to prohibit teachers from providing obscene materials to K-12 students.
Here are headlines from across the state:
Missouri Senators furious at hard-right faction, Jonathan Shorman
- Planned Parenthood sued Missouri, saying it planned to withhold funds, Jonathan Shorman
- Missouri is facing a lawsuit because they haven’t passed a Congressional map, Jonathan Shorman
The MO House approved a bill allowing concealed carry on public transit and in churches, Jonathan Shorman
A MO bill would make it harder for women to seek out-of-state abortions, Jonathan Shorman
And across Kansas:
Kansas legislators are pursuing a series of changes that would limit the power of public health officials during infectious disease outbreaks. The proposals are part of an ongoing backlash against COVID-19 restrictions. But opponents say they would rewrite a century of public health law and limit the response to future pandemics.
Kansas lawmakers redouble efforts to limit public health laws, Lucy Peterson and Katie Bernard
- Kansas lawmakers call for gun control after the Olathe East school shooting, Jonathan Shorman, Katie Bernard and Natalie Wallington
- The Senate confirmed the KDHE secretary after assurances she wouldn’t close churches, Katie Bernard
Violence against Kansas healthcare workers leads to bill to stiffen penalties, Katie Bernard
- Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran hails a Postal Service that passed Congress, Daniel Desrochers
The latest from Kansas City:
In Kansas City....
Environmental advocates worry about the move of KC office, Anna Spoerre
- They came to Kansas City seeking peace. Instead they found gun violence, Humera Lodhi
- Kansas City’s riverfront might soon get more pedestrian friendly, Anna Spoerre
Have a news tip? Send it along to ddesrochers@mcclatchydc.com.
Odds and ends
Mask Mandates
It’s not just Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall anymore. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of Republican leadership, signed onto a letter Thursday calling for the Biden administration to get rid of their travel-related COVID-19 precautions, like requiring masks in airports and on airplanes.
The letter followed an announcement that the Transportation Security Administration would continue to require masks on airplanes and other forms of public transportation until mid-April.
The extension comes as COVID-19 cases have plummeted following the Omicron surge at the end of 2021. Democratic leaders in many of the cities and states with the strictest public health measures have begun to lift precautions as the Centers for Disease Control issued new guidance that suggested most Americans could stop wearing masks in public and in schools in counties where there is low transmission.
Billy Bus meets with Truckin’ Moms
Missouri Rep. Billy Long held a press conference with a group called the Moms for America outside of the Capitol on Tuesday. Several speakers expressed their concern for the direction of the country. One said she was put on a leave of absence from her job as a flight attendant because she refused the vaccine. Another said she moved from Minnesota to Florida because of COVID-19 health precautions and two said they had started homeschooling their children because they didn’t like what was being taught in public school.
The moms were in D.C. because they were “Truckin’ for Freedom” in a purple truck as part of the Freedom Convoy — a group of truckers protesting COVID-19 precautions — and said they were inspired every time they saw people on overpasses cheering them on, including Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
Long used his time to talk about his opposition to mask mandates on planes and the vaccine mandate for military personnel. He also sported his standard fake $45 bills with former President Donald Trump’s likeness in his front pocket and wore running shoes because he’s running for senate. He said he was tired of people asking if he was still running, so he traded his cowboy boots for the New Balances.
Kansas Dems staffing up
The Kansas Democratic Party got a grant from the Democratic National Committee to hire an “organizing director” who will try to align the party’s voter outreach between the gubernatorial, congressional and legislative races this year. KDP chair Vicki Hiatt said the job would help Democrats reach more voters, earlier in the campaign.
Gov. Laura Kelly and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids face potentially difficult reelection campaigns. The party that holds the presidency often struggles in their first mid-term election and Biden’s approval ratings are low as voters have been hit with inflation and high gasoline prices.
The Kansas Third
Speaking of Sharice Davids...on Thursday she called on the Biden administration to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of the year to combat rising gasoline costs from the war in Ukraine. The federal gas tax adds 18.4 cents a gallon, but halting it could cut into the funding base for the bipartisan infrastructure bill she has been touting in Kansas.
Republican candidate Amanda Adkins hit Davids for the proposal, saying it wouldn’t do enough to help people who are paying higher gasoline taxes. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Adkins wasn’t providing any solutions of her own.
Happy Friday
Here’s a long read about Ukrainian-Americans traveling back to Ukraine to fight in the war. Have an espresso martini as a pick me up after losing an hour to daylight saving time on Sunday. Here’s a song by The Beatles for the road.
Enjoy your weekend.
Looking for more?
Think this newsletter is missing something? Think I’m fabulous? Think I’m a moron? Send your reactions to ddesrochers@mcclatchydc.com.
For more politics news, follow @KatieJ_Bernard, @drdesrochers, @jonshorman and @annaspoerre.
Support local journalists with a subscription.
Did someone forward this newsletter to you? You can sign-up here. If you’d prefer to unsubscribe from this newsletter, you can do so at any time using the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this message.