The Federal Reserve officially has a new chair. The Senate, slightly diminished by the polar vortex, voted to confirm Janet Yellen Monday evening, 56-26. (That's the first of a bunch of nomination votes that Republicans successfully postponed before the December recess. On a related note, President Obama
sent a boatload of nominations to the Senate Monday, largely all those people the Senate didn't get to last year.)
Immediately following that vote, the Senate was going to move on to a cloture vote on a three-month extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. They were proceeding to the vote with just a few minutes of debate when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) stood up to whine about the fact that 17 senators weren't able to be there to vote because of the weather, and that it was all politics on Reid's part to make Republicans look bad. He demanded the vote be rescheduled, so Reid promptly asked for unanimous consent that the vote be postponed until 10:00 AM Tuesday.
We'll find out tomorrow morning whether Republicans really care about looking bad for refusing to help the long-term unemployed, and have several more hours to push them on it. Sign and send the petition to Senate Republicans: Restore emergency unemployment benefits.
3:40 PM PT: Here's President Obama's statement on the Yellen confirmation.