Democrats look at late-night, weekend votes to confirm last Biden judicial nominees [View all]

Source: The Hill

11/18/24 7:41 PM ET


Senate Democrats are expected to vote late into the night Monday in a frantic effort to confirm as many of President Biden’s nominees to the federal judiciary as possible before President-elect Trump takes over in January. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told colleagues on the Senate floor Monday that the Democratic majority “will keep working to confirm as many of President Biden’s judicial nominees as we can before the end of the year.”

That means Senate votes stretching late into the night and possibly working over weekends and even during the Christmas recess in late December. Senators were expecting to hold a series of procedural votes late into Monday night or early Tuesday morning to allow Schumer to file cloture on a batch of Biden nominees, which would set up confirmation votes for later in the week.

Republicans were dragging out the process Monday night by forcing Democrats to hold time-consuming votes on procedural motions to switch from executive to legislative session and back again. Usually shuttling in between legislative and executive session is a routine move that the minority party agrees to by unanimous consent, without forcing colleagues to show up on the Senate floor to vote for an arcane motion.

Senate staff warned that senators could hold as many as 18 votes Monday night to conduct the procedural business that is often handled with a simple request for unanimous consent.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4997098-senate-votes-confirm-biden-nominees/