The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to move ahead with President Trump’s nominees to the lower courts as it considers Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
“We don’t anticipate the [Supreme Court] vacancy will have much of an impact on our progress on lower court nominees, especially considering that the Senate will be in session for much of August,” Taylor Foy, a spokesman for the Judiciary Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
Since Trump assumed the presidency, the Senate has confirmed 43 of his nominees to the federal bench, including Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, 22 nominees to the federal appeals courts, and 20 nominees to the federal district and other lower courts.
The Judiciary Committee gathered Wednesday to hold confirmation hearings for another batch of Trump’s picks to the federal bench.
Two appeals court nominees are currently awaiting votes on the Senate floor: Andrew Oldham to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Ryan Bounds to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
David Popp, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the Senate is not slowing down on lower court judges. McConnell filed cloture Thursday on Oldham’s and Bounds’ nominations, which the Senate will vote on next week.
The Senate has moved Trump’s picks to the lower courts at a quick pace, helping the president to break a record last year for having the most appeals court nominees confirmed during a president’s first year in office.
McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, vowed in May to continue moving forward with Trump’s judicial nominees. During an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt at the time, Grassley said his goal was for the Judiciary Committee to hold confirmation votes for five district court judges and up to two circuit court judges every other Wednesday through Christmas.
In a separate interview, McConnell said the Senate would work to clear judicial nominees until the new year.
But added to the committee’s workload will also be confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh, whom Trump nominated to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday.
After Kennedy made his retirement plans public, McConnell said the Senate would vote to confirm a new justice by the fall.
Senate Republicans agreed early last month to cancel most of the upcoming August recess in an effort to make progress on Trump’s nominees and pass appropriations bills.
