Wednesday: Senate votes scheduled on judicial streamlining bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) managed to strike a deal with Republican senators Tuesday night that allowed him to schedule a vote on final passage on legislation that would streamline the judicial confirmation process in the Senate. The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m. to begin this work.

As part of the deal, Reid pushed through a series of amendments by unanimous consent, and agreed to votes on Republican amendments that will occur Wednesday prior to the vote on the underlying legislation.

The Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011 is a timesaving measure designed to eliminate the need for executive nominees for minor posts in the government to be confirmed by the Senate as a whole. Instead, it would allow the process to be dealt with on a committee level.

Most of the amendments passed by unanimous consent on Tuesday tweaked the underlying legislation. These include one from Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) to preserve Senate confirmation for the Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans, one from Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) to instruct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit a report on presidentially appointed positions to Congress and the President, and one from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to require the Director of the Mint to continue to go through the Senate’s regular confirmation process.

The amendments slated for votes on Wednesday are one from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to prevent certain federal loans to the International Monetary Fund, another from DeMint to enhance accountability and transparency in some executive agencies, and amendments offered by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) that require full Senate confirmation for certain government officials.

In addition, Paul agreed to withdraw an amendment that would have required the Treasurer of the United States to continue to go through regular Senate confirmation process and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) agreed to drop a similar amendment that applied to comptrollers serving in the military.

-- This story was updated at 8:27 a.m. Wednesday.