{"id":1771008,"date":"2022-12-10T06:08:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T11:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771008"},"modified":"2022-12-10T07:18:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T12:18:28","slug":"schumer-to-keep-sinemas-committee-assignments-after-she-leaves-dem-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/schumer-to-keep-sinemas-committee-assignments-after-she-leaves-dem-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Schumer to Keep Sinema\u2019s Committee Assignments After She Leaves Dem Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fschumer-to-keep-sinemas-committee-assignments-after-she-leaves-dem-party%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771008&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Arizona Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-kyrsten-sinema\">Kyrsten Sinema<\/a>, who announced she\u2019s leaving the Democratic Party, would keep her committee assignments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed,\u201d Schumer said in a statement to news outlets on Friday. With Sinema as an independent, Democrats will hold majorities on committees and will have more subpoena power following Sen. Raphael Warnock\u2019s (D-Ga.) reelection earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder\" data-uri=\"archive.cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/paragraph_30577A56-18C5-99C3-AEB9-F7DB782E7791@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\">\u201cWe will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes,\u201d he proclaimed. Schumer did not provide more details.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Friday, Sinema made the announcement because \u201cAmericans are increasingly left behind by national parties\u2019 rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years,\u201d according to an opinion article she wrote for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/opinion\/op-ed\/2022\/12\/09\/sen-kyrsten-sinema-of-arizona-why-im-registering-as-an-independent\/69712395007\/\">AZCentral<\/a>. \u201cPressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties\u2019 priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sinema said she would not caucus with the Republican Party, according to an interview Politico published on Friday. If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater governing control in the closely divided chamber, blunting the impact of her defection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never fit neatly into any party box. I\u2019ve never really tried. I don\u2019t want to,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/12\/09\/politics\/kyrsten-sinema-leaves-democratic-party\/index.html\">told<\/a> CNN. \u201cRemoving myself from the partisan structure\u2013not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it\u2019ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Future<\/h2>\n<p>Sinema\u2019s surprise announcement came as the future of Democratic President Joe Biden\u2019s agenda in the second half of his term was already clouded by Republicans set to take control of the House of Representatives on Jan. 3.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4909241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/12\/07\/Chuck-Schumer-GettyImages-1447427701-1200x800.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4909241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/12\/07\/Chuck-Schumer-GettyImages-1447427701-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"     style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4909241\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/12\/07\/Chuck-Schumer-GettyImages-1447427701-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks at a press conference alongside Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) about the Senate Democrats expanded majority for the next 118th Congress at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Dec. 7, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>Ahead of the new Congress, House Republicans already have put Biden on notice they will seek deep domestic spending cuts and tougher border security steps. It will be up to Senate Democrats to foil some Republican initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Two other independents, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Angus King (I-Maine), caucus with Democrats. But in interviews and in her opinion article, Sinema declined to explicitly say if she would join them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I come to work each day, it\u2019ll be the same,\u201d Sinema told CNN. \u201cI\u2019m going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I\u2019ve been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues at both political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear if Sinema will seek reelection in 2024. Some Democrats, including Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), have already lined up to possibly challenge her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, Senator Sinema is once again putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans,\u201d Gallego said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past two years, Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have repeatedly withheld needed votes for legislation sought by Biden and Schumer. At one point, left-wing immigration activists followed Sinema into a college bathroom and demanded she support a $3.5 trillion spending bill last year.<\/p>\n<p>Almost a year ago, Sinema and Manchin killed an attempt by other Senate Democrats to temporarily waive the \u201cfilibuster\u201d rule, which requires a supermajority of 60 votes for most legislation to advance toward Senate passage.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times has contacted the office of Manchin, who has not publicly commented on Sinema\u2019s departure from the Democratic Party, for comment.\u00a0Manchin, whose state heavily voted in favor of former President Donald Trump in 2020, often downplays rumors that he\u2019s leaving the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been about 10 years since a senator switched parties. That came when former Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) left the Republican Party and became a Democrat. Before that former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, like Sinema, switched from becoming a Democrat to independent.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats were slated to hold a 51\u201349 edge in the Senate starting in early January after Warnock\u2019s win. Currently, the Senate is now split 50\u201350, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker for the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told CNN her decision is not \u201cgoing to shake things up quite like everyone thinks\u201d but \u201cmay change things with Arizona politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sinema, she added, \u201ctends not to go to the caucus meetings \u2026 except for rare moments where she\u2019s advocating for something she cares about. That\u2019s not going to change either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Reuters contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-jack-phillips\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2019\/06\/13\/Jack-Phillips.jpg\" alt=\"Jack Phillips\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>Breaking News Reporter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jack Phillips is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York. He covers breaking news.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who announced she\u2019s leaving the Democratic Party, would keep her committee assignments.\u201cShe asked me to keep her committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1898997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7403,5458,4384,6244,7028,4787,3819,4411,7404],"class_list":["post-1771008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-assignments","tag-bongino","tag-committee","tag-dem","tag-leaves","tag-party","tag-report","tag-schumer","tag-sinemas"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}