McConnell holds off on return of Senate

WASHINGTON >> Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said Saturday the Senate would not meet as planned this week after three senators tested positive for the coronavirus, even as he pledged to press ahead to confirm Judge Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court.

McConnell’s decision to convene the full Senate on Oct. 19 comes as three members of the Republican conference — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Others, like Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, have tested negative but have gone into quarantine.

But despite the increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the Senate, where there is no mandatory or universal testing program on the Capitol grounds, Republican leaders signaled they had no intention of slowing their ambitious time frame for confirming Barrett to the Supreme Cour t before Election Day.

“The Senate’s floor schedule will not interrupt the thorough, fair and historically supported confirmation process previously laid out,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said Saturday the panel would begin four days of confirmation hearings Oct. 12 as planned.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, condemned McConnell’s decision to press ahead with the proceedings, calling the effort “monomaniacal.”

“The decision to recess the Senate for two weeks after at least three Republican senators have tested positive for COV ID - 19 makes clear that the Senate cannot proceed with business as usual as the virus continues to run rampant,” Schumer said in a statement. “If it’s too dangerous to have the Senate in session, it is also too dangerous for committee hearings to continue.”

The vulnerability of lawmakers to the virus was highlighted in recent days when three Republican senators tested positive and several more scrambled to get a diagnosis and went into quarantine after interacting with their colleagues and attending the announcement of Barrett’s nomination at the White House. Several attendees of that event, including President Donald Trump and the first lady, have since tested positive.