Contact:
Ben Voelkel
‘Let’s not allow either party the ability to block a president being able to staff his administration.’
‘We can’t move on from health care because Obamacare is a mess.’
WASHINGTON — During an appearance on CNN’s ‘New Day’ Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) explained the rationale behind his call to reform Senate rules to limit partisan gridlock in the confirmation process of sub-cabinet and lower-level judicial nominees. Sen. Johnson published an op-ed on his proposed rule change in the Washington Post Sunday. During the interview, Sen. Johnson also highlighted his committee’s role in the next stage of health care reform.
Excerpts of the interview are below and video can be found here.
On breaking Senate gridlock
“My simple proposal is let the committees primarily vet administration nominees, do a really good job of it, and then just limit debate on any nominee that’s sub-cabinet or [lower] than Supreme Court justices to two hours so we can actually turn our attention to the enormous challenges facing this nation. Right now precious Senate floor time is just being wasted on nominees.”
“Let’s not allow either party the ability to block a president being able to staff his administration. Let’s not use Senate floor time that really should be used to debate for example, the debt ceiling, tax reform, how do you fix this mess that is Obamacare, appropriations bills … That’s what we should be using the Senate floor time to debate. Those serious challenges facing this nation.”
On holding health care hearings
“We can’t move on from health care because Obamacare is a mess.”
“In my committee, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, we are the Senate oversight committee. We’re not the committee of jurisdiction to write the legislation, but we can certainly hold hearings to lay out the realities.”
“We’re going to thoughtfully go through the problem solving process: Define the problem, get the information, do a root cause analysis, and let’s try to focus on achievable goals.”
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Ben Voelkel
Communications Director
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)
