White House: Prioritize nominations

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on Wednesday pressed Senate Democratic leaders to move on as many of the president’s nominees as possible in the lame-duck session.

“We really want to make sure that we get our nominations, so we can undertake all these important efforts that we’re leading across the globe,” McDonough told reporters after the meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
 
{mosads}There are more than 160 nominees pending on the Senate’s executive calendar, including 38 for the State Department and 24 judicial picks.
 
McDonough also urged Democratic leaders to pass an omnibus spending bill instead of a short-term or yearlong stopgap funding measure.
 
“We underscored our interest in getting an omnibus,” he said. “Obviously need the Ebola money.”
 
He said the president’s advisers were relieved with New York’s successful response to a doctor who contracted Ebola, but he warned other cities need federal funding.
 
“We need that money to make sure that everybody else is prepared,” he said.
 
McDonough said another high priority is making progress on the authorization for use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
 
“We want to make some progress on AUMF during this period,” he said.


The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a closed-door hearing Wednesday on countering the radical Islamic group, which has established a stronghold in eastern Syria and western Iraq.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Foreign Relations panel, earlier in the day called on Congress to move on defense authorization before the year is out.
 
Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center, he said it would be the “height of public immorality” to send troops on combat missions in Iraq and Syria without congressional approval.