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The Senate on Monday convened for the first time since March 25 as Democrats and Republicans clashed over the health of senators, as well as GOP efforts to confirm federal judges amid the coronavirus pandemic. Calling his fellow lawmakers “essential workers” as he defended the decision to return to the Senate amid the outbreak, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., roundly criticized Democrats for obstructing the confirmation of judges and key government posts for months and forcing the Senate to hold roll calls and floor votes during the public health crisis. “The deadly coronavirus does not take time off...

Senate Republicans lined up votes on 19 of President Trump’s judicial nominees for next week, moving to arrange one final burst of activity before leaving town for summer vacation. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the move Thursday, arranging votes to head off filibusters and then to confirm each of the picks. The number is possible because he led Republicans in triggering the nuclear option and changing chamber rules earlier this year, cutting the maximum debate time allowed on each district judge from 30 hours to just two hours.

These days, obstruction by the Democrats grabs the biggest headlines when they prevent solutions to the biggest issues – immigration, Supreme Court appointments, infrastructure, and so on – but their obstruction is actually the most egregious when it’s at its most petty. Confirming U.S. ambassadors should be one of the least political things the U.S. Senate does. For most of the country’s history, the process was a mere formality – a president would pick people to serve as America’s chief representatives to countries around the world, and those nominees would almost always be confirmed by voice votes, with little if...

The senators who are most likely to reject President Trump's nominees are the very ones who want to challenge him in 2020. The Hill's review of two-and-a-half years of vote totals shows Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted against more Trump nominees than any other senator. At the same time, Republicans voted virtually in lock step for Trump's nominees; the average GOP senator backed 99 percent of his picks, and the one who went rogue most often -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) -- still voted to confirm 93 percent of his nominees. Trump's picks...

<p>WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell says the Senate will be in the “personnel business” this year. But the majority leader’s focus on confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees is coming at the expense of any big legislative priorities.</p> <p>Nearly 100 days into the new Congress, the drive to confirm is adding more conservatives to the courts and putting more Trump appointees in government offices. But Trump’s promises to replace the Affordable Care Act, invest in infrastructure or cut middle class taxes have been essentially shelved.</p>

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared two nominees Thursday for seats on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ignoring objections from California’s two Democratic senators who complained they didn’t get a say in who President Trump picked. Daniel P. Collins and Kenneth Kiyul Lee were both approved on party-line 12-10 votes. Democrats said the two men were too conservative to earn seats on the West Coast’s most important court, but their complaints were even broader, accusing Republicans of further upending the “blue slip” tradition that, at some points in the past, has allowed home-state senators to veto judicial nominees. “We...

Senate Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” on Wednesday to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to confirm hundreds of President Trump’s nominees. Senators voted 51-48 to change the rules for the amount of time it takes to confirm most executive nominations with only a simple majority of the chamber. GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined with Democrats in opposing the rules change. Republicans are expected to trigger the “nuclear option” for a second time later Wednesday to force through the same change for district court nominations. The combined actions will result in most nominations...

Democrats blocked a GOP effort Tuesday to change Senate rules and speed up confirmation of most of President Trump’s nominees, leaving Republicans with few options other than a “nuclear” confrontation. The rules change has become a major test of political wills, with Republicans saying Democrats are treating Mr. Trump unfairly compared to past presidents. Democrats counter that Mr. Trump’s picks are so bad that they deserve the obstruction. Tuesday’s vote was 51-48, leaving the GOP well shy of the 60 needed to overcome Democrats’ filibuster. In the wake of the vote, Republicans seemed resigned to going “nuclear.” “This needs to...

Republicans took the first official step Wednesday toward a rules change that would allow the Senate to speed up votes on some of the president’s nominees — setting the stage for what’s likely to become a “nuclear” confrontation. While pleading for bipartisanship, GOP senators made clear they’ll likely act no matter what on a plan to cut the amount of debate time after filibusters to two hours on most presidential nominees, down from the 30 hours currently allowed under the rules. The 10-9 party-line vote made clear that bipartisanship is unlikely, leaving Republicans with only one option if they want...

Sen. Jeff Flake announced Wednesday that he will not vote to advance any new judicial nominees through the Judiciary Committee, nor will he vote to confirm picks on the Senate floor, until he gets his way on unrelated legislation to prevent the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Flake made the announcement on the Senate floor minutes after his bid to pass the bill failed. His threat could block the committee from approving any more judges this year, since the GOP only holds a one-seat majority on the panel. It’s less catastrophic to approving judges on the Senate floor,...

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee blasted the White House Thursday for picking nominees for the West Coast’s appeals court without consulting her, and saying one of the three doesn’t have any judicial experience. President Trump named a new slate of court picks Wednesday, including three judges to sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California objected, saying she had tried to consult with the White House but was rebuffed. She said she would withhold her blue slip, in a signal that she doesn’t acquiesce to the picks. Blue slips are a...

Full title: The left's obstruction of qualified Trump nominees is yet another front in the war against the presidentMore than a year and a half after the inauguration of Donald Trump’s presidency, the left continues to obstruct the confirmation of nominees to critical posts in both the executive and judicial branches. The unprecedented obstructionism denies leadership to executive branch departments and agencies and impedes the fair and swift administration of justice. It is also an abuse of the Senate’s constitutional obligation to provide “Advice and Consent” regarding presidential nominations of judges and key “Officers of the United States.” The Senate...

Some Democrats said they don’t have to wait for President Trump to pick a Supreme Court nominee — they’re voting “No” regardless of who he names. Sen. Bob Casey became the latest one, saying Monday that the entire process the president has followed was “corrupt” because he was working from a list he wrote with the help of the conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. Mr. Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat, said both of those groups have ties to corporations and he rejected anything that had their input. “Any judge on this list is fruit of a corrupt process straight from the...

Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to “audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.” Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.

Looking to speed the confirmation process for a backlog of President Trump’s appointments, Senate Republicans on Wednesday advanced a measure to cut down on floor debate time for certain executive branch and judicial nominees. Republicans said Democrats forced their hand on the issue by making the Senate devote too much floor time over the past year to clearing procedural hurdles on even non-controversial and lower-level nominees. “Pointless wasting time, even when we know what the outcome is going to be, is what we’re talking about here today,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The change, pushed by Sen. James Lankford,...

WASHINGTON – Countering resistance to President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, the spy agency gave lawmakers a declassified memo Friday showing she was cleared years ago of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes showing terror suspects being waterboarded after 9/11. Gina Haspel is facing opposition from some Democrats and rights groups critical of her activities related to the shredding of 92 videotapes in 2005 and her overall role in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which critics have portrayed as one of the shadiest chapters in the agency's history. Friday's release, however, did not satisfy opponents who want to know...

Judicial and LGBT advocates are slamming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for scheduling a vote on a horde of judicial nominees ahead of a possible government shutdown. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote Thursday on 17 judicial nominees, who were re-nominated by President Trump at the beginning of the month. Under Senate rules, nominees have to be approved by the full Senate in order to carry over into a new session of Congress. But advocates are accusing Grassley of trying to avoid public scrutiny by slipping controversial candidates opposed by Democrats into an already stacked agenda....

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee chastised their Republican colleagues on Thursday, accusing them of rushing President Trump’s judicial nominees through the confirmation process. Ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said it was the fastest confirmation pace for circuit court nominees she could remember in her 25 years on the committee. “I want to point out that it’s a marked contrast to the traditional rate of confirmations,” she said. “For example, last week marked the fourth hearing since May when two circuit court nominees were on the agenda the same day. That’s four times in six months, yet this committee only...

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, delayed a vote to confirm several Trump administration appointees on Thursday after she was criticized by a Cabinet member over her health care vote.

President Trump unveiled a round of 11 judicial nominees Thursday for openings on district courts across the country. Trump's announced his intent to fill openings on district courts in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Oklahoma. As of July 13, there were 108 current vacancies on district courts with six nominees pending, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts' website. The list includes the nomination of Liles Burke, an associate judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and William “Billy” Ray,...