SENATE RETURN DELAYED AS THIRD SENATOR FALLS ILL

Mcconnell vows to press ahead with Barrett hearings

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

Mcconnell’s decision to convene the full Senate 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 since Friday.

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 Court 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 that 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 COVID-19 makes clear that the Senate cannot proceed with business as usual as the virus continues to run rampant,” Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer notably did not say Democrats would block Mcconnell’s plan. Doing so could force the Senate back into the confines of the Capitol, where there is no mandatory testing of lawmakers and their aides.

However, 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 called for a more stringent protocol and contact tracing for Congress. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-conn., called on Mcconnell to require tests for every senator and staff member who has visited the White House over the past two weeks.