Republicans, Who Control Senate Committees Despite Losing Majority, Reject Democrats’ Demand for Merrick Garland Confirmation Hearing
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has rebuffed a request from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to hold a confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Merrick Garland.
“At this point, there is simply no justification to object to a February 8 hearing for Judge Garland,” Durbin wrote in a Monday letter to Graham, noting the date “accommodates your desire not to hold a hearing on Judge Garland’s nomination during a day when the Senate will be conducting” former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Despite losing the Senate to Democrats in January, Republicans have not reached a power-sharing agreement with Democrats, which has allowed them to retain committee majorities. Without such an agreement, Vice President Kamala Harris would need to be consistently available in the Senate to cast tie-breaking votes, owing to the fact that Democrats hold just 48 of the chamber’s 100 seats, along with two independents — Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT) and Angus King (ME) — who caucus with their party.
Republicans have refused to promulgate a power-sharing agreement unless Democrats commit to preserving the legislative filibuster, something Democrats have been unwilling to do. The filibuster allows senators to block legislation unless 60 members vote to proceed.
Republicans have also objected to hearing from Garland while Trump’s impeachment trial is in motion. Graham elaborated on that objection in his Monday letter responding to Durbin.
“The Senate is about to conduct its first-ever impeachment trial of a former president and only its fourth trial of a president, incumbent or not,” Graham wrote. “Under the procedure the Senate has adopted, Donald Trump’s trial is set to start on February 9. But you want us to rush through Judge Garland’s hearing on February 8.
“A one-day hearing as you are proposing the day before the impeachment trial of a former president is insufficient,” he added. “Democrats do not get to score political points in an unprecedented act of political theater on one hand while also trying to claim the mantle of good government on the other.”
Biden informed committee staff that he intended to nominate Garland, a former chief judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, on Jan. 6, though paperwork for the nomination wasn’t sent to the committee until last week. The committee typically schedules a hearing four weeks after receiving a nominee’s paperwork.
Former President Barack Obama previously nominated Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016 to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, but Republicans blocked his nomination that year as well. The position was filled in 2017 by Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch.
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