Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., complained Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee is working more quickly to approve President Trump’s judicial nominees, and worked much more slowly to approve President Barack Obama’s nominees.
Feinstein, the committee’s top Democrat, said she is worried about the committee’s diminishing role because of the “greatly sped up and hurried pace of considering judicial nominees.” She specifically complained about the committee’s work in November to advance five federal appeals court nominees, under Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s leadership.
“I’ve served on the Judiciary Committee since January of 1993, and during my entire tenure our committee has never held hearings for five circuit court nominees in a single month,” Feinstein said. “In fact, the committee considered just five circuit court nominees during the final two years of the Obama presidency. So only five were considered during Obama’s final two years and now the committee is moving the same number of nominees in a single month.”
As Feinstein complained, Grassley leaned over to ask if he could interrupt her so they could proceed with the business of the committee, since the necessary quorum of senators had arrived to proceed. Grassley told Feinstein he would stay and listen to her remarks after the committee completed its work.
After holding over votes on three federal appeals court nominees until next week, Grassley gaveled the committee into recess “until the fall of the gavel, but that could be imminent or it could be a long time away, I don’t know.”
