I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both Democrats, signed onto a letter today pledging to end the process of “secret holds” where any Senator can stop a bill from moving forward without disclosing their names.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has been leading the effort in the Senate.
So far, no Republicans have signed onto the effort, Talking Points Memo reports.
A change in Senate rules said that after a certain amount of time, the identity of the person putting the secret hold on a bill or nominee would have to be revealed. But Republicans have found a way around that.
Last Friday was the deadline for disclosing the names of the senators who’d put secret holds on the dozens of nominees McCaskill tried to get confirmed. But not one of those names ever got printed in the Congressional Record. That’s because the holders secretly pass the baton to new unnamed holders before the end of the six-day publication deadline.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn became the first Republican senator to reveal secret holds he’s placed on six nominees. McCaskill, in the meantime, has gotten 51 Democrats to sign a letter to both leaders demanding that secret holds be abolished. Asked Tuesday about those holds, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called them an issue of individual senators’ rights.
With so many nominees by President Barack Obama, Democratic Senators have stepped up efforts to end the process of secret holds. McCaskill tried to bring up 80 such nominees last month and all were objected to by Sen. Jon Kyl on behalf of other Senators.
