The 2014 Elections
and the Impact
on Your Business
A
2014 Issue 4 |
the
SCORE
26
mericans handed President
Obama and Democrats in
Congress major defeats on election night by voting for Republicans to control the Senate and increase
their lead in the House of Representatives. The 2014 midterm elections, held
Nov. 4, 2014, conveyed a clear message:
Congress and the White House need
to begin working together to get things
done.
Republicans took control of the
Senate to secure the headlines on election night. At the time of this writing,
the Republican Party has picked up
eight seats, securing control of the
Senate chamber by a 53-46 margin (this
includes two independent senators, who
caucus with Democrats). Senate seats
flipped from Democrat to Republican
control in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado,
Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South
Dakota and West Virginia. The remaining
undecided Louisiana Senate seat will be
determined Dec. 6, when a runoff election
will be held between liberal incumbent
Mary Landrieu and Republican Rep. Bill
Cassidy. While there have been few polls
By Misty Chally
taken since the election, an internal poll
taken by Cassidy’s staff shows him with a
16-point lead over Landrieu.
Republicans solidified their majority
by gaining a net 12 seats in the lower
chamber. Their prior 34-seat hold
widened, as the makeup of the 114th
Congress will be 244 Republican seats
and 188 Democratic seats, with three
races too close to call (AZ-02, LA-05,
LA-06). The Republican’s control is the
largest majority the party has seen since
the Herbert Hoover administration.
In response to these Republican
gains, President Obama declared,“I hear
you”to the American people. He went
on to discuss several“victories,”which
included the passage of minimum wage
increases (via ballot measures) in a
number of states.
Many Hurdles for FBS’
Legislative Priorities
While many agree that a Republican-controlled Congress will aid in the
movement of pro-business legislation,
there are several hurdles these bills must
overcome to survive. In the House of
Representatives, business-friendly bills will
generally receive the
simple majority of votes
needed in order to
proceed to the Senate
(218 out of 435). The Senate, however, is a
different story.
Although controlled by Republicans in the 114th Congress, Senate rules
allow for unlimited debate on bills unless
cloture—or a motion to end debate—is
invoked. A motion for cloture is used to
end a filibuster and requires 60 votes to
be successful. As a result, bills that don’t
meet the 60-vote threshold often fail in
the Senate; because Republicans will only
represent 53 votes, they will likely not
achieve the threshold needed on many
more issues. If they are successful, and a
bill passes both the House and Senate,
President Obama still has the power to
veto the legislation.
With that said, and given the
outcome of the elections, it is unclear
whether Democrats will work to pass
bipartisan legislation or resist Republican
proposals and hold their breath until