Senate Republicans rebelled Monday night against President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees in the final weeks of his presidency by forcing Democrats to have roll-call votes on what would otherwise be mundane procedural matters.
For action that would typically be teed up in a span of minutes by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and without votes, the Senate was expected to drag on for hours late into Monday night and possibly Tuesday morning to hold nearly 20 procedural votes on nine nominees.
The move came as Senate Democrats look to use their remaining days in the majority to confirm as many of Biden’s lifetime appointments as possible before Republicans take over in January.
In a chamber that operates on consensus for nearly everything it does, the procedural warfare was one of the only tools at the GOP’s disposal to slow down the process.
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The nominees require a simple majority, as do the procedural votes, to advance their nominations, lending Democrats the ability to overcome eventually all of the hurdles set in their way by Republicans. But the Senate does not enforce its 15-minute timeline for votes and frequently takes 30 minutes to more than an hour per vote.
Republicans were forcing votes on motions as mundane as proceeding to legislative session and filing cloture on nominees, steps that would otherwise be agreed to unanimously without fanfare.