Senate agrees to stop 'nuclear' option

A compromise would approve President Obama's pending nominations to

the National Labor Review Board and the Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau.



WASHINGTON —The U.S. Senate reached a loose bipartisan agreement

Tuesday to avert Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan to invoke

the "nuclear option" to make it easier for the chamber to approve

presidential executive branch nominees.



"We're basically done -- everything but dotting the i's and crossing

the t's," the Nevada Democrat told reporters following the weekly

Senate lunches.



Under the agreement, Democrats will get up-or-down votes on seven

nominations to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau.



Democrats will have to abandon two NLRB nominees who were

recess-appointed by President Obama, which is under legal review by

the Supreme Court. Republicans, in turn, have agreed to take action on

two new NLRB nominees with the intention of approving all seven

nominations before the August break.



While the bipartisan agreement heads off a controversial maneuver by

Reid to change Senate filibuster rules to lower the maximum threshold

required to approve executive nominees from 60 to 51 votes, Reid

stopped short of calling it a victory.The agreement applies only to

the seven pending nominations, and Democrats warned that the debate

could re-emerge in this Congress. "We got a 'yes.' And I think I

should take the 'yes,'" Reid said, when asked what Democrats achieved

in this fight.



Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that

the current accord will not stop the minority from exercising their

rights in future nomination fights. "All the options available to the

minority remain intact," McConnell said.



It is commonly referred to as the "nuclear" option because it

threatened to tear apart the Senate along partisan lines by upending

long-held Senate rules and traditions protecting minority party

rights.



The agreement was secured following a weekend of quiet talks between

senators and a three-hour long meeting late Monday with the full

Senate.



In the first sign of progress, the Senate voted 71-29 Tuesday to move

ahead with the confirmation of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau, one of the nominations that had been at

the center of the dispute.



Democrats in particular praised Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his

efforts to head off the nuclear option, and Sen. Roger Wicker,

R-Miss., for suggesting the Monday meeting. "John McCain is the reason

we're at the point we are," Reid said, "No one was able to break

through but him."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who also played a key role in

negotiating the compromise, echoed Reid's praise of McCain in securing

a working agreement. Schumer said he and McCain spoke at least 30

times through the weekend and late Monday.



"I think both leaders saw, and everybody saw, that we were so close

that it would be a shame to have an Armageddon, if you will, when we

were so close," Schumer said, adding that the deal was "crystallized"

Tuesday morning.



"It's good for the Senate, and hopefully it paves the way for

continued and more bipartisan cooperation in the Senate. We walk up to

the brink, but we get there," Schumer added.



Schumer said McConnell asked Reid to pledge not to attempt the nuclear

option again in this Congress, but Reid countered he could only do so

if McConnell pledged Republicans would not filibuster executive branch

nominations.



Neither leader could agree to the other's demand for a long-term agreement.