Senate panel expected to back Trump SC nominee
Washington, April 3: The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was poised on Monday to approve President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, for a full Senate vote later in the week, setting up a political showdown as Democrats work to block his confirmation.
The panel began its meeting and was set to vote after its members spoke on Gorsuch’s nomination. Republicans hold a 11-9 majority on the committee, which held a four-day confirmation hearing last month, and control the Senate by a 52-48 margin.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel’s top Democrat, announced her opposition to Gorsuch, a conservative appeals court judge from Colorado who the Republican president nominated to the lifetime job as a justice in January.
Democrats are planning to use a procedural hurdle called a filibuster that requires a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to cut off debate and allow a confirmation vote. The actual confirmation vote would be by a simple majority if the filibuster is stopped.
Feinstein’s office said she would support a filibuster. Forty Democratic senators have come out against Gorsuch but not all have made clear they would support a filibuster.
The committee’s chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley, defended Gorsuch as a jurist worthy of confirmation despite complaints of many Democrats. — Reuters