Incoming Republican Senate leader John Thune, R-S.D.said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is “wrong” if he thinks he can steamroll votes through before a new administration.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and weeks before the Democrat majority ends with the outgoing Biden administration, Schumer reportedly looked to stack judicial confirmation votes. However, GOP senators led by Thune moved to delay votes on Monday, sources told Fox News.
“If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over and allow him to quickly confirm multiple Biden-appointed judges to lifetime jobs in the final weeks of the Democrat majority, he thought wrong,” Thune, currently serving as Senate Minority Whip, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“In response to the Democrat leader’s decision to file cloture on a number of judicial nominees, which would come up for confirmation votes in a number of days, Republicans plotted procedural maneuvers on the Senate floor to significantly delay votes, multiple GOP sources told Fox News,” the outlet reported.
One source told Fox News, “it could be a late night” during the first procedural vote on Monday night.
Fox News explained:
In order to file cloture on a nomination, the Senate needs to transition from legislative session to executive session. This is typically done by unanimous consent from the Senate. But on Monday evening, Republicans began objecting to the requests for unanimous consent.
When a senator objects, it requires the transition between executive and legislative sessions to be voted on.
By objecting to Democrats’ unanimous consent requests in order to file cloture on the Biden nominees, Republicans are adding additional votes to the schedule, taking up a substantial amount of time.
“The judges we’ve confirmed represent perhaps the widest range of backgrounds and experiences ever seen under any president,” Schumer said from the chamber floor on Monday, referring to the 215 Biden nominees already confirmed by the Democrat-led Senate.
“We have more judges that worked as public defenders, legal aid attorneys, civil rights lawyers, federal prosecutors, voting rights lawyers, and more women and people of color than we’ve ever had under one Administration,” he added. “After we vote today, we’ll keep going. Tonight, I will file on additional judges who we will move forward on the floor this week.”
“So, let me repeat: the Senate is going to keep prioritizing judicial and administrative confirmations this week, this month, and for the rest of this year,” Schumer said.
