Senate Republicans play hardball with Schumer on judicial noms
The process to schedule votes to set up confirmation votes usually takes minutes, but Monday night was a different story after the GOP senators decided to grind it to a halt.
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. The Senate completed its only scheduled vote on Monday evening just after 6:30 p.m. but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did not adjourn the chamber until almost midnight. The long session was required after Republicans adopted a hardball strategy to prevent Schumer from scheduling votes to advance additional judicial nominees—a procedure that typically takes a few minutes with unanimous consent.
But with the balance of power in Washington slated to fully shift to Republicans next year, Democrats have one lever to pull while they still have the majority: Install as many of President Joe Biden’s picks for lifetime appointments to the federal bench as possible.
“The judges we’ve confirmed represent perhaps the widest range of backgrounds and experiences ever seen under any president. 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,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday afternoon before the marathon vote series. “The Senate is going to keep prioritizing judicial and administrative confirmations this week, this month and for the rest of the year.”
Ultimately, Schumer teed up nine nominees for confirmation votes in the coming days. Republicans, for the time being at least, can delay. But they can’t deny Schumer from running up the score as long as enough Senate Democrats show up for each vote. Since returning after the election, the Senate has confirmed three judicial nominees. As you’ll see in Happenings, the confirmation votes will continue today.
Spokespeople for Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats or the White House did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans could not be reached for comment.
The Senate has confirmed 216 judges nominated by President Biden for lifetime appointments to date. 27 nominations are pending Senate action (four for the courts of appeals and 23 for the district courts). There are two vacancies on the courts of appeals and 42 on the district courts plus 15 unannounced vacancies that may occur before the end of Biden’s term (three for the courts of appeals and 12 for district courts).
President Biden had the most judicial nominees confirmed during a president’s first year in office since former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Biden appointed the most federal judges during the first two years of any presidency since former President John F. Kennedy. The Senate confirmed Biden’s 200th federal judicial nomination in May.
Happenings
The House will meet at 10 a.m. with first votes scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and last votes expected for 4 p.m.
The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of Mustafa Kasubhai's nomination to be US District Judge for the District of Oregon.
President Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing this morning before participating in day two of the G20 Summit. He will hold a working lunch with President Lula da Silva of Brazil this afternoon before leaving the country and returning to the White House tonight.
Vice President Harris will leave Washington, DC, this afternoon to travel to Kalaoa, HI with a stop in Los Angeles on the way.
In the Know
⇢ The House Ethics Committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the report it produced after completing its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz for alleged drug use and sex with a minor. The committee initially planned to meet last week but rescheduled after Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing, resigned from Congress last week following his nomination by President-elect Trump to be his Attorney General. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reiterated his position that the report should remain private since Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress. Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), the top Democrat on the committee, told a small group of reporters that she thought the report should be released to the public but that she would wait to see what other members of the panel would do before taking further action.
⇢ Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a resolution. to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the US Capitol. The resolution, which was first reported by Liz Elkind of Fox News, is expected to be considered as part of the House rules package for the upcoming Congress. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) was elected as the first openly transgender member of Congress earlier this month, a distinction her colleagues worry will make her a target of transphobia from Republican members. McBride called the resolution a distraction from the lack of Republican solutions to the problems Americans are facing.
⇢ Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, a nearly 1,400-page proposal to jumpstart negotiations on the farm bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that sets and food and agriculture policy for the federal government. The proposal calls for $39 billion in new resources and aims to provide farmers with long-term certainty, improve disaster relief, expand crop insurance, and ensure faster support for agriculture, including increased reference prices for 22 major crops. It also includes significant investments in biofuels, local foods, agricultural research, and voluntary conservation programs, rolling in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The proposal also defends nutrition assistance programs like SNAP, which she argues must not be cut, especially in light of rising food insecurity. It’s unclear if Congress will pass a new five-year farm bill or approve a second year-long extension to the bill that expired last year.
⇢ In a floor speech advocating for the proposal, she framed it as the only viable path to passing a comprehensive, five-year farm bill that addresses the needs of farmers, families and rural communities across the country. Stabenow, who will retire from the Senate at the end of the year, outlined her previous efforts to pass a balanced and bipartisan farm bill in line with the six she has worked on while a senator and top Democrat on the Ag Committee. She acknowledged the key concerns raised by farmers across the country, particularly regarding crop insurance, the need for a stronger farm safety net, and the increasing struggles of rural communities, including food insecurity, healthcare access and high-speed internet. She also criticized the GOP-led House version of the farm bill as a proposal that disproportionately benefits southern commodities at the expense of other farmers, particularly those in the Midwest who grow fruits and vegetables or run diversified operations. She stresses that such an approach should not come at the cost of rural families or small towns.
⇢ Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) accused President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans of a bait-and-switch after a new report indicated they are considering cutting Medicaid and food stamps to pay for an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. “Following through on this plan would cause real hardship and increase the cost of living for millions of working families, but the votes are tallied and Trump is headed back to the White House, so his campaign trail populism is over and done with,” Wyden said. “Ultra-wealthy political donors want their massive tax handouts, and as far as Trump and Republicans are concerned, everybody else can go pound sand.”
⇢ Rep. Mike Sherrill (D-NJ) announced her candidacy to be the Democratic nominee for governor of New Jersey. The announcement comes days after Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) publicly declared his intent to seek the nomination, setting up a competitive primary fight between two House Democrats.
⇢ The Democratic Women’s Caucus called on parents and administrators to hold conversations with kids to help them understand why the rise in hateful, sexist and misogynistic rhetoric—including the phrase “your body, my choice”—directed at girls and women online and in schools since Election Day is threatening and unacceptable. “Together, we affirm that every woman in America has a right to make her own choices about her body and her health care,” 35 members of the DWC said in a statement. “To women and girls of all ages across this nation, your body is yours alone. Sexual assault and harassment should never be tolerated, and you deserve to feel safe in your school, in your community, and online. This Caucus stands with you.”
⇢ President-elect Trump confirmed on his Truth Social app that his incoming administration would declare a national emergency and use military assets to implement his mass deportation operation. Trump border czar Tom Homan previously said that the National Guard would be used in a support capacity but would not be making arrests, but it’s still unclear how the Trump administration will identify undocumented immigrants or pay for the operation.
⇢ President Biden announced the US would pledge $4 billion over three years to replenish the International Development Association, a member of the World Bank established in 1960 to provide assistance to the world’s poorest developing countries. “This was a really important session for us, because it lifts up a lot of our priorities that we’ve been working on, not just in the G20 and for the summit, but throughout the last four years,” a senior administration official told reporters about the pledge. The official said the US is joining a few other countries that have already made an announcement, but the administration hopes Biden’s pledge catalyzes further ambitious announcements over the next couple of weeks. It’s worth noting that the pledge would have to be fulfilled in a future budget request and that none of the $4 billion would go out the door while Biden is still in office. A spokesperson for the Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment on whether the incoming administration would consider honoring the pledge once the president-elect takes office.
Do you have questions about the lame-duck session or the incoming Trump presidency? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch and I’ll report back with answers.
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