Senate powers through nomination votes in marathon session

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate burned the midnight oil Friday as Democrats pushed for a slew of nominees to executive and judicial positions to be confirmed, but pushback from Republicans and the lack of a bipartisan deal led to gruelingly long votes and a handful of confirmations before midnight.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had lobbied throughout the week for Republican leaders to cut a deal with his party and quickly confirm around 20 of President Joe Biden's nominees, or face late-night votes and a congressional agenda that could bleed into many senators' planned vacations.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had indicated early in the week that he would be open to allowing the confirmation of more than a dozen of nominees to ambassadorships if Democrats would agree to a vote to sanction Russia's Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline, a policy he's been pushing for and had originally attempted to tack on to Congress' annual defense spending bill.

But hours of drawn-out votes came and went Friday without a formal bipartisan deal to expedite the process and the number of voting senators dwindled from nearly 80 lawmakers early in the day, to 70 by midnight.

Around 1 a.m., lawmakers settled on a deal to approve a package of nominees early Saturday and schedule a vote for mid-January to address the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The Senate powered through a queue of nominees as Friday turned into Saturday, with the deal speeding up the process and the chamber approving a total of nine district judges, 41 ambassadors and five other executive nominees before closing out their work for the year after 4 a.m.

The federal judicial confirmations included Linda Lopez as a judge for the Southern District of California, Jinsook Ohta as a judge for the Southern District of California, David Urias as a judge for the District of New Mexico, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong as a judge for Central District of California, Jane Beckering as a judge for the Western District of Michigan, Shalina Kumar as a judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, Jennifer Thurston as a judge for the Eastern District of California, Katherine Menendez as a judge for the District of Minnesota and Mary Dimke as a judge for the Eastern District of Washington.

The confirmations made a dent in what is still a hefty backlog of approximately 150 nominees awaiting confirmation by the Senate.

This queue is due in large part to obstruction by Republicans, who demanded roll call votes on nominees to drag out the process and the Senate had to file cloture to end debate on multiple nominees.

Some nominees' fates have hung in limbo for as long as six months, with candidates waiting to know for half a year whether they will serve in the positions Biden selected for them.

"For decades, both sides have understood that each president, regardless of party, deserves to have their administration filled and we’ve worked together to make that happen, particularly for non-controversial and less senior nominees. But today’s blockade is a beast of a different nature," Schumer said on the floor of the Senate early Friday.

Schumer said earlier this week that the chamber has had to file cloture on twice as many nominees during the first year of Biden's presidency compared to the first year of former President Donald Trump's time in office.

Democrats' urgency to confirm the nominees is due in part to the quickly approaching end of the Senate's session, after which point any nominees who haven't been confirmed need to be renominated by the president, unless the Senate unanimously agrees to keep the nomination on the table.

Concerns about how delays in the confirmation process for ambassador picks could impact U.S. diplomacy have also been a talking point for Democrats.

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut warned early Friday that delays in the confirmations of multiple American representatives to Europe, including the ambassador to France and the U.S. representative to the European Union, could throw a wrench in the goal of staving off Russian encroachment into Ukraine.

Another nomination that hangs in limbo is Biden's pick to head the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Association, a key leader who will oversee the implementation of the infrastructure bill's expansion of broadband into rural communities.

"For all the howling and hollering we hear from Republicans about inflation, national security and economic recovery, they’re blocking the very same people whose jobs it would be to tackle these issues. It’s Alice in Wonderland logic," Schumer said Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Republicans criticized Democrats for keeping the Senate in session Friday, with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee saying the Friday marathon was a sign of irresponsible governing.

"Our business should be done. We have had all year. We should have wished one another well last week and then we should have gotten ourselves home to our families, to our church families, to our neighbors and friends. And right now, I should be in Tennessee wishing Tennesseans well for this Christmas season," Blackburn said.

Schumer placed the blame for Friday's late-night session squarely on Republicans.

"This is the consequence of Republican obstruction, we are going to keep voting in this chamber," Schumer said.

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