Mitch upends Senate rules on judge picks

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell triggered the so-called nuclear option Wednesday in a bid to speed through more of President Trump’s judge picks and other nominees.

McConnell has complained for months that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Democrats were unfairly using Senate rules to require a full 30 hours of debate on the Senate floor for an unprecedented number of Trump nominees. McConnell said 128 nominees were stalled for 30 hours each just to hamstring Trump.

“It is time for this sorry chapter to end,” McConnell said shortly before forcing a pair of votes to end that 30hour rule. The first succeeded 51 to 48 on an assistant commerce secretary nominee. The second — later in the afternoon — on a lower-court judge passed by the same margin.

“This is the day we end this completely outrageous level of interference and obstruction with this administration,” McConnell said.

Lower-level judges and other appointees will now need just two hours of debate, meaning the Senate will be able to move more Trump nominees much more briskly through their confirmations.

Schumer and other Democrats scoffed at McConnell’s claims, noting the majority leader has boasted this year of getting more judges confirmed than anyone in recent history.

“For Leader McConnell to brag about confirming more judges than ever before then complain about Democratic obstruction and say the process is broken … is the height of hypocrisy,“Schumer said.

“I am sorry, so sorry, my Republican colleagues have gone along with Sen. McConnell’s debasement of the Senate,” Schumer said. “To do this for such blatantly political ends is simply unworthy of this institution.”

Normally a rules change in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote. But McConnell carried out the change by challenging the 30-hour rule after a noncontroversial nominee passed. He said only two hours should be mandated. The presiding officer ruled the 30-hour requirement was valid, as required. However, McConnell called a vote to overrule that decision. That required only a simple majority, and set a new precedent.

The move is called the nuclear option because it is rare.

It jettisons the Senate tradition of respecting minority party rights. McConnell also went nuclear to confirm Supreme Court justices in the last Congress, with simple majority votes. Democrats did the same for lower-court judges in 2013.

Outside advocates saw the move as especially galling because McConnell masterminded the obstruction of so many open judge seats — including blocking a Supreme Court nomination for a year — that Trump came into office with more than 100 judgeships to fill.