{"id":3281,"date":"2016-12-12T08:30:56","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T07:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/?p=3281"},"modified":"2017-04-18T13:10:19","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T12:10:19","slug":"crunch-time-for-senate-republicans-and-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/2016\/12\/12\/crunch-time-for-senate-republicans-and-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Crunch Time for Senate Republicans (and Democrats)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Donald Trump continues to announce the people he will nominate to his cabinet\u00a0appointments<\/strong> and other posts which have normally been given cabinet rank such as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency it will be up to the United States Senate to confirm these people and the country and the world will see what the Senators are truly made of<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/a>
Scott Priutt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From an environmental point of view, the confirmation of Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt, would be a disaster as reported this week\u00a0in the The Economist<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. The man is clearly in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry and is\u00a0bent on repealing Barak Obama’s landmark\u00a0Clean Power Plan<\/strong> that obliges the States to move away from coal powered electricity.<\/p>\n

The thing is that the U.S. Senate has the chance to stop this<\/strong> and other dangerous appointments that Trump has said he would make.<\/p>\n

Simple Math<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The law says that such high profile appointments require the confirmation of the U.S Senate. What this means in practice is a simple majority<\/strong>, or in the case of a filibuster, three fifths of the Senate must support the nomination.<\/p>\n

The current Senate has 52 republicans and 46 Democrats and 2 Independents<\/strong> such as Bernie Sanders who normally vote with the Democrats. \u00a0The Vice President presides over the Senate and can break a tie. Assuming the Democrats stay together, they will need to win over 3 republican Senators to block Trump’s nuttiest and most worrisome nominations.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Mcain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those three\u00a0could be people such as:<\/p>\n