Reid announces mandatory quorum call ahead of joint caucus

At 6 p.m. all senators are supposed to meet in the Old Senate Chamber for a closed-door joint caucus. The purpose of the joint caucus is for senators to air grievances on filibuster rules.

“I look forward to the joint caucus,” Reid said. 

{mosads}Reid has threatened to use the “nuclear option” — changing the Senate rules with a simple-majority vote — in order to thwart Republican obstruction on seven of President Obama’s cabinet nominees. Republicans have complained that changing the rules would diminish minority rights in the Senate.

Last week, Reid filed cloture on seven of Obama’s nominees, some of which Republicans have objected to. If a deal isn’t reached sooner, there will be several procedural votes on the nominations Tuesday.

Nominees Democrats are hoping to vote for are Richard Cordray to be Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection; Richard Griffin, Sharon Block and Mark Pearce to the National Labor Relations Board; Fred Hochberg to be President of the Export-Import Bank; Thomas Perez to be Secretary of Labor; and Gina McCarthy to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.