No Deal on Filibuster Rules

After hours of tense negotiating, U.S. senators failed to reach a deal to avoid a "nuclear" move from Majority Leader Harry Reid to ban the filibuster of federal-employee nominations. Reid made a speech Monday at the Center for American Progress demanding that Republicans stop blocking routine executive-branch nominations and threatening to change the rules by majority vote Tuesday if they don’t. Senators from both parties would rather reach a deal to confirm the backlogged nominees than end the filibuster, but when their hours-long eleventh-hour sequester failed, it looked like the filibuster may be on the chopping block. Talks are expected to continue.