{"id":17164,"date":"2021-01-11T10:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T18:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=17164"},"modified":"2021-01-11T10:01:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T18:01:30","slug":"kamala-harris-is-about-to-become-the-most-powerful-vice-president-in-nearly-a-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/01\/11\/kamala-harris-is-about-to-become-the-most-powerful-vice-president-in-nearly-a-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris Is About To Become The Most Powerful Vice President In Nearly A Century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Kamala<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She Doesn\u2019t Need a Majority to Hold McConnell Down and Run the Senate Herself<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Lisa Kerr<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DCR\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Lisa Kerr (dcreport.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we await final confirmation of Georgia\u2019s Senate runoff results, one thing already is known. The Senate, evenly split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, will have a new leader on Jan. 20\u2014Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris should exercise her constitutionally guaranteed role as the Senate\u2019s president and preside over the Senate as vice presidents routinely did until 1937. If the Democrats fail to take back the Senate majority, this role will be crucial to the nation\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even if both Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock formally win and take their seats, the excess power afforded by tradition\u2013not law or rule\u2013to the majority leader is contaminated irrevocably by Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell\u2019s abuse and must be reclaimed for the American people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell\u2019s abuse of delegated presiding power has amputated the Senate from Article I of the Constitution. He has used that mutilation to erase the House\u2019s power, as well. In truth, America has had no functioning legislature. That must change. The Constitution both contemplates and demands it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once seated as the Senate\u2019s constitutional presiding officer, Harris can exercise power far beyond merely breaking tie votes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Gridlock is a relatively new crisis<\/a>. The Senate once worked better and was designed to work better. Once seated as the Senate\u2019s constitutional presiding officer, Harris can exercise power far beyond merely breaking tie votes. She can break gridlock by recognizing any<\/em> senator to bring any <\/em>House-passed bill to the floor. She can do that without altering a single Senate rule with a procedural vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving Bills to the Senate Floor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris will become president of the Senate automatically under Article I, Section 3, which also recognizes that the Senate can \u201cchuse [sic] their other officers,\u201d including majority and minority leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Article I, Section 3 does not give such \u201cother officers\u201d the vice president\u2019s power to preside, which includes the power of \u201cpriority recognition\u201d\u2014that is, allowing a senator to speak on the Senate floor and thus to move a bill into debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the mid-20th century, the vice president used the presiding officer\u2019s power of priority recognition to develop the Senate into the world\u2019s greatest deliberative body, cultivating a forum for open debate and compromise that transcended partisan lines. When the House passed a bill, any senator recognized by the vice president acting as presiding officer could move it to the floor<\/a>, be seconded by another senator and proceed into debate and a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standing rules of the Senate give its presiding officer abundant power. But they do not require the majority leader to be<\/em> that presiding officer. Delegation of priority recognition from the vice president to the majority leader is not required by any written rule of the Senate or by any of its standing orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell\u2019s \u2018Informal Practice\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As vice presidents took on greater executive duties, they simply began delegating the chair to chosen senators. The Senate\u2019s official history acknowledges<\/a> this \u201cinformal practice\u201d crystallized into the ongoing delegation to the majority leader in 1937<\/a>, thus creating an emperor without clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A delegated power can be un-delegated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1937, the routine delegation of the VP\u2019s presiding power to the majority leader has become a habit that none question\u2014like cigarette smoking in the \u201960s. But the malignant cancer of delegation to McConnell is not required by the Constitution. And when delegation is abused chronically to block bills from the Senate floor, it is the duty of the vice president to reclaim her presiding power. Obstructing is not presiding. It is stifling the air from our legislative lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may ask: \u201cWouldn\u2019t reclamation of the vice president\u2019s constitutional presiding power require a change in the rules of the Senate? And doesn\u2019t that need a two-thirds majority vote\u2014which we won\u2019t have even if Warnock and Ossoff both win their Georgia runoffs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Delegation of the vice president\u2019s constitutional presiding power is found nowhere in the Senate\u2019s Rules.<\/a> Rule XXIII, \u201cPrivilege of the Floor,\u201d only determines who can be recognized<\/em> by the presiding officer, not who can act<\/em> as that presiding officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power to Recognize Speakers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Harris, as presiding officer, can recognize a senator to move House-passed bills\u2014efforts McConnell has stifled repeatedly, most notably with the much-needed $3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill the House passed in May but McConnell never brought to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris recognizing the Senate minority leader, Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), or any other senator, could allow such bills to come before the Senate while posing no conflict with Rule XXIII. Nor would it conflict with any other standing rule because the majority and minority leaders would retain their non<\/em>-presiding powers. Any spurious points of order blocking such action could be rejected by the vice president herself\u2014as the presiding officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constitution Trumps Senate Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If a bare Republican Senate majority purported to override that rejection, Harris would have standing to challenge it in court. Any Senate rule that purported to bar her from presiding would fail under the Constitution\u2019s Supremacy Clause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution is superior to the Senate rule, not the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some may contend, \u201cDidn\u2019t the early Senate successfully rebel against the VP\u2019s presiding powers?\u201d But that argument overlooks Marbury v. Madison<\/em>, which didn\u2019t exist in America\u2019s early years. The case instituted the judicial branch\u2019s power to review legislative actions and void them if found unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, we need to look at Senate rules that might be deployed to restrict the presiding power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like any other government rulemaking, it must be within the scope of its statutory authorization or, here, constitutional authorization. The Constitution endows the Senate with power to \u201cchuse its other officers\u201d but not<\/em> to \u201cchuse\u201d the presiding officer, specified to be the vice president. To the extent a GOP majority attempted to suspend or amend its rules to block or defang Harris, it would violate Article 1, Section 3 and be voidable by judicial process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Divided Senate<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It looks like Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will win their Georgia Senate races, resulting in a rare 50-50 split between the two major parties. The Washington Post ran a short Q&A<\/a> about what that means for the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n