GOP seeks to curtail Senate work, but not Barrett hearings
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Saturday sought to call off legislative work in the Senate until Oct. 19 as the coronavirus reached into their ranks. But they vowed that hearings for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee would push ahead as planned even as lawmakers demanded testing for everyone on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett will still begin Oct. 12, even if Democrats agree to cancel the regular Senate session to avoid further spread of COVID-19. Since Friday morning, three GOP senators have announced they have tested positive.
“The Senate’s floor schedule will not interrupt the thorough, fair and historically supported confirmation process,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, running for reelection in South Carolina, added that senators can attend the hearings virtually.
“Certainly,“McConnell wrote, “all Republican members of the committee will participate in these important hearings.”
But Senate Democratic
Leader Charles Schumer took aim at that plan, saying that if the COVID threat is too great for Senate sessions, it makes Barrett’s confirmation perilous, too.
The Re p u b l i c a n s ’ “monomaniacal drive to confirm Judge Barrett at all costs needlessly threatens the health and safety of Senators, staff, and all those who work in the Capitol complex,” Schumer said in a statement.
However, Schumer did not say Democrats would block McConnell’s plan. Doing so could force the Senate back into the confines of the Capitol without the mandatory testing of lawmakers and their aides.
The back-and-forth served as an emphatic reminder that Senate Republicans defending their majority had hoped for an election season finale focused on their power to solidify a conservative majority on the high court.
But the whipsaw infections of Trump, who has been hospitalized, and a series of GOP senators since Friday morning raised significant worries in Republican circles about the spread of the virus at various events where masks have been scarce.
Concern began with the White House Rose Garden ceremony Sept. 26 where Trump introduced Barrett.
In the audience, where few people wore masks, were members of the Judiciary Committee that will handle confirmation hearings. Two members of the panel, Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, on Friday announced that l i ke Trump, they had tested positive for the virus.
On Saturday, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who is not a member of the Ju d i c i a r y p a n e l , a n - nounced that he also had tested positive.
With three Republican senators infected and others awaiting results, McConnell is without a fully working majority of 50 senators. He would need to rely on Vice President Mike Pence to be on hand to break any tie votes.
Amid the outbreak, members of both chambers of Congress called for a comprehensive testing plan for Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and McConnell have resisted doing so because universal testing is not available to everyone in America.
Some senators are calling for more stringent protocols for Congress. Sen. Chris Murphy, D - Ct., called on McConnell to require tests for every senator and staff member who has visited the White House recently.