Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Monday evening filed...

any other immediate details. A hold from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, prevented a vote on Wheeler’s confirmation earlier this month, and the two are expected to meet Tuesday. Cloture is the process by which the Senate can limit time for debate of certain items and force action. “If cloture is invoked on any of these nominations (60-vote threshold), there would be up to 8 hours for debate on each of the nominations,” according to the Senate leadership office in announcing the cloture filing. “Unless an agreement can be reached, the first cloture vote would occur one hour after the Senate convenes on Wednesday, October 30.” Pressure continued to build for an anticipated meeting Tuesday between Wheeler and Cruz. Multiple sources continued to point to Tuesday as a firm date for the meeting, but none had details on location and time. Cruz has imposed a hold on Wheeler’s nomination due to Cruz’s dissatisfaction with Wheeler’s answers regarding FCC authority to compel campaign finance disclosures. Reid pressed the issue on the Senate floor Monday. “We must consider a number of vital presidential nominations, including several that have been stalled for more than a year by members of the Republican caucus,” Reid said in prepared remarks. “It is no secret that Republicans have systematically slow-walked or blocked scores of President Obama’s judicial and executive branch nominees.” He blasted what he called Republican obstructionism. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., meanwhile, threatened to “block every appointment in the U.S. Senate,” which would include Wheeler, until survivors of the 2012 Benghazi attack are made available to Congress, he said Monday in a message on Twitter (http://bit.ly/1f0bjP8). Free Press Senior Director of Strategy Tim Karr criticized Cruz’s hold. “Letting the FCC do its job means advancing the public interest at a time when politicians are running amok in Washington,” said Karr in a widely circulated Friday column at the Moyers and Co. website affiliated with TV journalist Bill Moyers (http://bit.ly/17U2hOI). “And that means shedding light on the money that helped elect many of these individuals, no matter which party they're from. Sen. Cruz shouldn’t deny us our right to know. His reckless ambitions are hurting our democracy. Cruz needs to lift his hold and stop blocking the FCC’s vital work on political disclosure.” Communications Workers of America also blasted the hold and cited CWA’s support for the Disclose Act. “Disclosing who sponsors and pays for political ads is all about bringing transparency to our political system,” said CWA President Larry Cohen in a statement (http://bit.ly/1dEHJ47). “By supporting the ability of big money donors to spread their message in secrecy, Ted Cruz is clearly on the wrong side of democracy.” Cruz’s office has announced it’s arranging a meeting but would not confirm Monday that a meeting is happening Tuesday. Observers last week emphasized to us that this meeting may be vital for any swift resolution of the hold -- which might last for months otherwise (CD Oct 25 p1).