On Tuesday, the Senate voted for the first time since September 25. They voted top confirm April Perry to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. With Sinema romping around the world at taxpayer expense and John Fetterman (D-PA) and James Risch (R-ID) out and Marco Rubio and JD Vance out doing their next jobs, Perry was confirmed 51-44, every Democrat plus Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (I-WV) voting aye. Then they adjourned— because they’re a bunch of lazy fucks whose salaries should be donated to homeless shelters.
The following day they were back for another arduous workout. This time they overrode GOP filibusters against Jonathan Hawley to be U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois, against David Huitema to be Director of the Office of Government Ethics and Cathy Fung to be a Judge of the U.S. Tax Court. They then confirmed Hawley before adjourning for the day. Only Sinema and Ben Cardin were missing. Manchin and Murkowski voted first to override the Hawley filibuster and then to confirm him. Collins stuck with the Republicans on both votes.
When it came to the Huitema vote, Murkowski and Collins both stuck with the GOP but Manchin— who has said he would not vote to confirm nominees unless there was at least one Republican joined him— voted with his former party anyway. He told Axios “that ‘we're in different times right now’ when asked about his previous pledge, adding that ‘my Republican friends are under the microscope.’... Manchin said he would evaluate judges on a case by case basis, but that it was still important to work in a bipartisan manner. ‘I'm looking if there is an attempt to try to get a Republican’ on each nomination, Manchin said.”
When it came to the ritual Fung filibuster, Collins, Manchin and Murkowski were joined by Republicans Bill Cassidy (LA), Todd Young (IN), Thom Tillis (NC), Mike Crapo (ID), Mitt Romney (UT), Kevin Cramer (ND) and John Cornyn (TX) because the Tax Court isn’t looked at as partisan at all and it just didn’t matter to anyone. And then they adjourned.
On Thursday they were back in session, confirmed Fung (59-37), confirmed Huitema (50-46), just Manchin joining the Democrats, and override a cloture motion against Embry Kidd to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, a big deal and one that Manchin joined all the Republicans for but that Sinema— back in town— voted with the Dems on. The override succeeded 49-47 with 7 of the senators playing hooky.
At this snail’s pace— or senatorial pace— Schumer will never get Biden’s remaining nominations through. I’ll believe this when I see it but Axios also reported that Schumer told the Senate Democrats lunch yesterday that he’s “planning to move on more judges and told his caucus to prepare to be in town for long weeks.”
The Senate has to adjourn before it reconvenes on Jan 3, right? How many recess appointments can Biden make in that time?
1 reptilican is bipartisan? What kind of nonsense is this? Not that it matters if it's bipartisan. It certainly won't next year.