Update: In an interview with MSNBC"s Chuck Todd, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy offered the most honest explanation yet for the Senate Parliamentarian finding that three provisions in the final Trump tax bill violate Senate budget rules - meaning that the House will need to hold another vote on the bill.
"Somebody screwed up," Kennedy said.
Still, Kennedy reiterated that observers shouldn"t read too much into the delay. Republicans have been scrambling to put the bill together and pass it before the end of the year - a notably tight deadline. Some exhausted staffer was probably responsible for the oversight, he suggested.
"We have the votes, we"ll have the votes tomorrow. If necessary, we"ll have the votes the day after that," Kennedy said on MSNBC.
The Senate is still expected to vote on the bill Tuesday night after removing the offending provisions.
* * *
In an embarassing reversal of what House Republicans had celebrated as a done deal, the House will need to vote again on the final version of the tax reform plan passed earlier this afternoon. The second vote is the result of a technicality in one of the bill"s provisions. According to Bloomberg, the Senate parliamentarian found three provisions in the final bill that violate the Byrd Rule, and the Senate will have to strip them from the bill before passing it, according to Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who had earlier hinted that he was looking into possible Byrd Rule violations.
Then the House will need to hold a second vote on the newly modified bill.
“It is our intention to raise a point of order to remove these provisions from the conference report and require the House to vote on this bill again," Sanders said. The House now expects to take another vote on the tax bill tomorrow morning, according to email from majority leader’s office; that vote would clear the bill for Trump’s signature, assuming the Senate passes the bill with the required changes later this evening.
According to the Byrd Rule, lawmakers can challenge provisions in a bill if they would significantly add to the deficit. Democrats have identified three such provisions.
Republicans brushed off the delay as a minor inconvenience. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said they weren"t a big deal. However, Brady told CNBC that it"s unclear how this will impact the vote on the stopgap spending bill that must be passed before Friday at midnight or the federal government will enter a Christmas shutdown.
One of the provisions is related to a detail in the bill that would benefit a private college in Kentucky. Another would allow families to use tax-advantaged 529 accounts for home-schooling expenses, according to the Associated Press.
"Members are advised that we expect Senate Democrats to insist on a Byrd Point of Order on the Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 1, which is likely to be sustained," said guidance from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise"s (R-La.) office, which was sent to GOP lawmakers, according to the Hill.
"As such, Members are further advised that an additional procedural vote on the Motion to Concur is expected tomorrow morning, which will clear the bill for President Trump’s signature," his office added.
The second vote will likely take place on Wednesday, and is expected to pass, according to CNBC. However, the chance that the wheels could fall off at the last minute can never be ruled out.
Earlier, the House approved the tax plan in a 227-203 vote with 12 Republicans joining all the Democrats in opposition.
Update: In what could be a serious problem for Ryan and the rest of the GOP leadership, Democratic leaders in the House have asked their members to vote against the Republican continuing resolution bill as it stands.
.@WhipHoyer says House Democrats are being asked to vote against the stopgap-defense-disaster spending package.
“We are asking our members to vote no. If Republicans want Democrats’ votes, they need to work with us on a serious compromise.”
House Republicans have decided to attach provisions reauthorizing a popular child health-insurance program and allocating an unprecedented $81 billion in disaster-aid spending to a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government funded until Jan. 19,Politico reported Tuesday, citing anonymous Congressional aids.
House Speaker Paul Ryan disclosed the new strategy in a GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning.
NEWS— Ryan tells House Republicans he will attach the $81 billion supplemental disaster spending bill to the stopgap bill to keep the government open.
Funding for the federal government is set to run out on Friday at midnight, and Republican leaders have been preoccupied with tax reform and unable to focus on averting a shutdown and the myriad other legislative priorities that demand action before Congress enters recess.
By combining all the measures into one bill, Ryan will likely attract the support of Democrats in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, California and other states affected by this year’s natural disasters, who probably wouldn’t risk being seen opposing badly needed funding for their home states.
However, as the Hill explained earlier, even with CHIP and disaster aid attached to the House bill, averting a shutdown is far from assured. Indeed, Ryan is standing by a measure in the bill that would authorize spending for the Pentagon through September. That provision is incredibily unpopular with Democrats, whose votes Senate Republicans will need to overcome a filibuster.
Eight Democratic votes are needed in the senate to overcome a fillibuster. However, when it comes to locking in a year’s worth of defense spending, Ryan is facing a dilemma. Eliminating the provision could alienate conservative Republicans who might band together to oppose the bill. But cutting the defense-spending provision would likely attract Democratic votes.
Forty-four Democrats signed onto a letter vowing to oppose a combination CR–defense omnibus bill because of concerns about prioritizing defense spending over domestic programs.
Another issue likely to become a problem in the senate is reauthorizing the Obamacare subsidies that Trump cancelled back in October - a decision that has prompted participating insurers to warn of more premium hikes.
Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who was one of the last senators to throw her support behind tax reform, could be an obstacle for the spending bill. Once the CR reaches the senate, Republicans might try to attach the ObamaCare fixes that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised Collins in exchange for her vote on tax reform. However, conservatives like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz could try and block the bill from passing if these measures are added. Indeed, observers will be watching to see if McConnell breaks his promise to Collins, who could continue to create serious headaches for the leadership given their thin majority.
After a turmoil-filled evening, President Trump is wasting no time this morning telling the American people (via Twitter) just how he feels about Russia, Republican Senators, and the Filibuster.
In other words, Russia was against Trump in the 2016 Election - and why not, I want strong military & low oil prices. Witch Hunt! https://t.co/mMSxj4Su5z
As a reminder, The Hill notes that the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony this week claiming that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and others evaded registering as foreign agents even though the firm worked on part of an influence campaign to overturn the Magnitsky Act, which was passed to punish Russian officials in 2012.
Graham: So, I just want to absorb that for a moment. The group that did the dossier on President Trump hired this British spy, wound up getting it to the FBI. You believe they were working for the Russians?
Browder: That"s correct. And in the Spring and Summer of 2016 they were receiving money indirectly from a senior Russian government official.
The White House subsequently brought up the testimony, linking it to the dossier, in a press briefing.
"Today there was public testimony that further discredited the phony dossier that"s been the source of so much of the fake news and conspiracy theories, and we learned that the firm that produced it was also being paid by the Russians,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said
The firm this week accused the White House of trying to "smear" it for investigating the president"s alleged ties to Russia. The company called it “a nonsensical argument that Russia had an agent investigate and expose Russia’s influence on the election.” The Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Fusion GPS founder Simpson for testimony.
But then he refocused his aim on Healthcare, filibuster, and Republican Senators...
Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE!
Of course - President Trump may need to adjust the "rules" a little more since "49" seems to the magic number that Republican Senators can"t count above. Still, not a bad start for a Saturday morning rant.
Update: After weeks of endless rhetoric and party bickering over the controversial usage of the "nuclear option", Neil Gorsuch has officially been confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States with a largely partisan vote of 54-45.
* * *
Following a series of procedural votes yesterday to invoke the so-called "nuclear option", the Senate is expected to vote shortly to confirm Neil Gorsuch as the 113th justice to serve on the Supreme Court.
Given the rule changes implemented yesterday, Republicans require only a simple majority vote to confirm Gorsuch, and with Republicans holding a 52-48 majority in the Senate, today"s vote is all but a foregone conclusion. And while it will mostly be a partisan vote, 3 Democrats are also expected to support Gorsuch for a final vote tally of 55-45.
The official roll call can be watched here:
* * *
Here is our summary from yesterday on the Senate"s move to invoke the "nuclear option":
In a historic vote, Senate Republicans on Thursday crushed "a Democratic blockade" - in Reuters" words - of Trump"s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, in a fierce partisan brawl, approving a rule change dubbed the "nuclear option" to allow for conservative judge Neil Gorsuch"s confirmation by Friday.
The Senate voted 52-48 along party lines to repeal a rule allowing filibusters against Supreme Court nominees,invoking the so-called nuclear option, and clearing the way for Gorsuch confirmation who now needs a simple majority for nomination. Shortly thereafter, the Senate voted 55-45 to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, setting up a final vote expected Friday. Thanks to the new rule enacted earlier Thursday, a simple majority was needed.
"This will be the first and last partisan filibuster of the Supreme Court," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, accusing Democrats of trying to inflict political damage on Trump and to keep more conservatives from joining the high court.
"In 20 or 30 or 40 years, we will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court, a day when we irrevocably moved further away from the principles our founders intended for these institutions: principles of bipartisanship, moderation and consensus," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
McConnell initiated the rules change by raising a point of order asserting that simple-majority votes should advance Supreme Court nominees to final confirmation votes. Democrats tried to delay it by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed unified.
Earlier Thursday, McConnell said the rules change would restore the Senate’s tradition of considering a Supreme Court nominee based on credentials instead of ideology. He called the Democratic filibuster of Goruch “a radical move” and something “completely unprecedented in the history of our Senate.” “This threatened filibuster cannot be allowed to succeed or to continue for the sake of the Senate, for the sake of the court and for the sake our country,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Democrats successfully blocked Gorsuch’s nomination from getting 60 votes earlier Thursday morning, prompting Republicans to go “nuclear” and change the rules to allow Gorsuch and future Supreme Court nominees to clear the Senate with only a simple majority. Democrats tried to delay the rules change vote by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed unified.
Democrat senators Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) voted with Republicans to allow President Trumps’s pick to move forward.
Republicans defended the party-line vote on the nuclear option, saying Democrats were to blame for blocking Gorsuch, who they believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) argued that Democrats should “come to their senses.”
“The truth of the matter is that throughout this process, the minority led by their leader has been desperately searching for a justification for their preplanned filibuster,” he said ahead of Thursday’s votes.
McConnell added that the current stalemate was part of a decades-long Democratic effort to “politicize the courts and the confirmation process.” “The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man that nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself,” he said.
Republicans hinted for weeks that President Trump’s nominee would be confirmed one way or another. McConnell confirmed during a leadership press conference that he had the votes to go “nuclear” if needed.
According to The Hill, Republicans appeared resigned to the tactics, arguing if Democrats won’t support Gorsuch — who received the American Bar Association’s highest rating — they won’t allow any GOP nominee to join the Supreme Court.
* * *
The Republican-backed rule change on Thursday maintains the ability to filibuster legislation. In the past, the nuclear option has been averted when moderates in the two parties compromised to avoid a showdown, but the ferocious partisanship in Washington now made that impossible.
Experts said eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments could make it more likely that presidents, with little incentive to choose centrist justices who could attract support from the other party, will pick ideologically extreme nominees in the future.
Ending the filibuster also would make it easier for future Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed when the president and Senate leadership belong to the same party.
With the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in Congress and with federal courts blocking the president"s ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States, securing Gorsuch"s confirmation took on even greater importance for Trump, who took office in January.
* * *
Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court"s 5-4 conservative majority, enabling Trump to leave an indelible mark on America"s highest judicial body and fulfill a top campaign promise by the Republican president. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades.
The court"s ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more.
The nine-seat Supreme Court has had a vacancy since conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016.
In a historic vote, Senate Republicans on Thursday crushed "a Democratic blockade" - in Reuters" words - of Trump"s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, in a fierce partisan brawl, approving a rule change dubbed the "nuclear option" to allow for conservative judge Neil Gorsuch"s confirmation by Friday.
The Senate voted 52-48 along party lines to repeal a rule allowing filibusters against Supreme Court nominees,invoking the so-called nuclear option, and clearing the way for Gorsuch confirmation who now needs a simple majority for nomination. Shortly thereafter, the Sante voted 55-45 to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, setting up a final vote expected Friday. Thanks to the new rule enacted earlier Thursday, a simple majority was needed.
"This will be the first and last partisan filibuster of the Supreme Court," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor, accusing Democrats of trying to inflict political damage on Trump and to keep more conservatives from joining the high court.
"In 20 or 30 or 40 years, we will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court, a day when we irrevocably moved further away from the principles our founders intended for these institutions: principles of bipartisanship, moderation and consensus," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
McConnell initiated the rules change by raising a point of order asserting that simple-majority votes should advance Supreme Court nominees to final confirmation votes. Democrats tried to delay it by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed unified.
Earlier Thursday, McConnell said the rules change would restore the Senate’s tradition of considering a Supreme Court nominee based on credentials instead of ideology. He called the Democratic filibuster of Goruch “a radical move” and something “completely unprecedented in the history of our Senate.” “This threatened filibuster cannot be allowed to succeed or to continue for the sake of the Senate, for the sake of the court and for the sake our country,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Democrats successfully blocked Gorsuch’s nomination from getting 60 votes earlier Thursday morning, prompting Republicans to go “nuclear” and change the rules to allow Gorsuch and future Supreme Court nominees to clear the Senate with only a simple majority. Democrats tried to delay the rules change vote by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed unified.
Democrat senators Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) voted with Republicans to allow President Trumps’s pick to move forward.
Republicans defended the party-line vote on the nuclear option, saying Democrats were to blame for blocking Gorsuch, who they believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) argued that Democrats should “come to their senses.”
“The truth of the matter is that throughout this process, the minority led by their leader has been desperately searching for a justification for their preplanned filibuster,” he said ahead of Thursday’s votes.
McConnell added that the current stalemate was part of a decades-long Democratic effort to “politicize the courts and the confirmation process.” “The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man that nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself,” he said.
Republicans hinted for weeks that President Trump’s nominee would be confirmed one way or another. McConnell confirmed during a leadership press conference that he had the votes to go “nuclear” if needed.
According to The Hill, Republicans appeared resigned to the tactics, arguing if Democrats won’t support Gorsuch — who received the American Bar Association’s highest rating — they won’t allow any GOP nominee to join the Supreme Court.
* * *
The Republican-backed rule change on Thursday maintains the ability to filibuster legislation. In the past, the nuclear option has been averted when moderates in the two parties compromised to avoid a showdown, but the ferocious partisanship in Washington now made that impossible.
Experts said eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments could make it more likely that presidents, with little incentive to choose centrist justices who could attract support from the other party, will pick ideologically extreme nominees in the future.
Ending the filibuster also would make it easier for future Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed when the president and Senate leadership belong to the same party.
With the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in Congress and with federal courts blocking the president"s ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States, securing Gorsuch"s confirmation took on even greater importance for Trump, who took office in January.
* * *
Senate confirmation of Gorsuch, 49, would restore the nine-seat court"s 5-4 conservative majority, enable Trump to leave an indelible mark on America"s highest judicial body and fulfill a top campaign promise by the Republican president. Gorsuch could be expected to serve for decades.
The court"s ideological leaning could help determine the outcome of cases involving the death penalty, abortion, gun control, environmental regulations, transgender rights, voting rights, immigration, religious liberty, presidential powers and more.
The nine-seat Supreme Court has had a vacancy since conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016.
* * *
Update 2: Republican"s start roll call to implement "nuclear option":
Update 1: As expected, Democrats have just voted to temporarily block Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination, setting up a “nuclear option” vote for later in the day. Around 11:30AM EST, Senators voted 55-45 on ending debate over President Trump’s pick leaving Republicans 5 votes shy of the 60 vote threshold required.
As we noted earlier, Republicans are planning a vote later today to remove the 60-vote threshold for cloture on Supreme Court nominees, lowering it to a simple majority.
And with that vote, the official Democrat policy objectives for the next two years have been publicly recorded:
* * *
Back in 2013, before Republicans seized control of the Senate during the 2014 mid-term elections, Democrats became the first party to pursue the "nuclear option" in order to appoint Obama judges over the objection of Republicans. Both Obama and then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid praised the use of the "nuclear option" at the time:
Obama: "The gears of government have to work. And the step that a majority of senators took today, I think, will help make those gears work just a little bit better."
Harry Reid: "It"s time to change. It"s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete."
And while Democrats celebrated, Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to warn his colleagues on the other side of the aisle that they just might come to regret their decision "sooner than you think."
"If you want to play games, set another precedent that you"ll no doubt come to regret. To my friends on the other side of the aisle, you"ll regret this and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think."
Today, it"s looking increasingly likely that "sooner" has come. As NBC reports, barring some unexpected, last-minute deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will almost certainly trigger the so-called "nuclear option" later today to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Senators spent all day yesterday debating the matter, but the outcome — a permanent change in rules that will affect both the Senate and the nation"s highest court — has been as good as settled since at least week when Democrats confirmed they had the votes required to block Gorsuch"s nomination.
Here"s how it will work:
The Senate is slated to hold a procedural vote, called a cloture around mid-day Thursday. Sixty votes are needed to end debate and move forward to a final vote that requires a simple majority of 51 to confirm Gorsuch.
But Democrats have enough votes to prevent, or filibuster that first step. When the cloture vote fails, McConnell is likely to begin the process of changing the rules to eliminate filibusters on Supreme Court nominations, with a vote on that expected later Thursday afternoon. Then the final up-or-down vote to confirm Gorsuch is expected to take place on Friday.
Meanwhile, the rule change will come after Senate Democrat Jeff Merkley wasted 15.5 hours "filibustering" on the Senate floor overnight. Ironically, as even Chuck Todd notes in the video below, Merkley fully supported the Democrats" use of the "nuclear option" in 2013.
As The Hill notes, a group of Republicans and Democrats led by Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) negotiated intensely over the weekend in hopes of avoiding a blowup over the rules, but they fell short.
“The negotiations with which I was heavily involved have failed to come up with a compromise, which saddens me. There’s so little trust between the two parties that it was very difficult to put together an agreement that would avert changing the rules,” Collins told reporters.
“I worked very hard over the weekend, as did several Democrats and several Republicans, but we were not able to reach an agreement,” Collins added, estimating that about 10 lawmakers were involved.
The group held calls as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as midnight in hopes of avoiding a rule change adopted along party lines.
Coons said the talks fell apart because of pressure from Senate leaders, who weren’t interested in a deal, and from the conservative and liberal bases of the party, who view the Supreme Court’s composition as a top priority.
“The fact that both leaders were opposing negotiations also, frankly, made it difficult,” Coons said. “Both caucus leadership and outside groups were a source of steady and aggressive pressure against some consensus negotiation, in both parties.”
Of course, while Republicans will undoubtedly declare victory tomorrow upon Gorsuch"s nomination, it"s only a matter of time before the tables are turned once again and their decision comes back to haunt them.
Senator Claire McCaskill said she will join the Democrats attempted filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and will not vote for him, making it almost certain that Republicans will have to trigger the “nuclear option” to confirm President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee.
The Missouri Democrat announced Friday in a post on Medium, faulting the nominee for “a stunning lack of humanity.”
"While I have come to the conclusion that I can"t support Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court ?- ?and will vote no on the procedural vote and his confirmation? - ?I remain very worried about our polarized politics and what the future will bring, since I"m certain we will have a Senate rule change that will usher in more extreme judges in the future," McCaskill wrote in a post on Medium.
She said the nomination of Gorsuch goes against the grain of Trump’s promise to help working-class Americans because he is “a judge who can’t even see them.” McCaskill also raised concerns about Gorsuch’s refusal during his confirmation hearing to say how he viewed the constitutionality of campaign fundraising regulations, which were limited by the landmark case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010.
"I cannot support Judge Gorsuch because a study of his opinions reveal a rigid ideology that always puts the little guy under the boot of corporations,” she said adding "I cannot and will not support a nominee that allows dark and dirty anonymous money to continue to flood unchecked into our elections."
What makes McCaskill"s opposition unique is that she is the first Democrat facing reelection next year in a state President Trump carried by double digits to come out against Gorsuch, a move which will likely force other "on the fence" Democrats to follow in her footsteps.
The political press is divided over what her no vote means: according to Axios: "Gorsuch just got the last "no" it needed so the Democrats can meet the vote threshold to filibuster his nomination. Republicans will now have to get rid of the 60-vote filibuster threshold for judges, or allow Gorsuch"s nomination to fail."
A less definitive conclusion comes from the Hill, according to which her "no" vote shrinks the pool of Democrats who have undecided or unclear positions on Gorsuch to nine. Gorsuch"s nomination needs the backing of eight Democrats or Independents, along with all 52 Republicans, to break a filibuster.
Only two Democrats have so far said they will vote to end a filibuster of Gorsuch and support his final confirmation, according to The Hill’s Whip List. Both of them, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), represent states Trump won overwhelmingly in November.
Meanwhile, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Gorsuch will be confirmed and has told colleagues to expect a vote to change the rules to lower the threshold for ending a filibuster to a simple majority, i.e. the "nuclear option".
As The Hill adds, to avoid a showdown over the rules, it now becomes crucial for Gorsuch to pick up the support of the two remaining undecided Democrats who face reelection next year in strongly pro-Trump states: Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (Ind.).
Gorsuch would likely also need the support of senior Democrats such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), who might be concerned about preserving their power to filibuster for the next vacancy on the court.
Other Democrats up in the air are centrist Sens. Mark Warner (Va.) and Chris Coons (Del.), along with Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine), who praised Gorsuch earlier this year as “exceedingly independent.”
Assuming Axios" whip list is the correct one, and McCaskill"s vote was the tiebreaker, forcing the "nuclear option", the likely outcome is to make the already deep split between Republicans and Democrats even more polarized, further complicating the passage of any future Trump legislative proposals.
While Democrats debate whether or not to filibuster the Neil Gorsuch nomination for Supreme Court, moments ago they delayed for one week an initial committee vote on Gorsuch. As The Hill first reported, Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the committee, said Democrats had requested that the committee"s vote on Gorsuch be punted to next week.
"I understand that the minority would like to hold [him] over," Grassley said during the Judiciary Committee"s meeting on Monday. Under committee rules any one member can request that a nomination be held the first time it appears on the agenda.
Today"s move is not a surprise: Democrats were widely expected to delay the committee"s vote until next week. The delay means the committee vote will likely take place on April 3, giving Republicans days to meet their goal of winning Gorsuch"s confirmation by the full Senate by the end of that week. The Senate will then go into a recess.
Democrats are demanding a 60-vote threshold for Gorsuch"s approval, but it is unclear whether the party has enough votes to support a filibuster against Trump"s nominee.
Meanwhile, Republicans have suggested they will change the Senate"s rules allowing a filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if Democrats block Gorsuch. The committee held a four-day hearing on Gorsuch"s nomination last week, with Trump"s nominee appearing before the committee for three days.
Democrats also delayed Rod Rosenstein, nominated to be deputy attorney general, by a week.
