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WASHINGTON: United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday (October 3) that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will go ahead as planned despite that two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee had contracted COVID-19.
Senators Thom Tillis and Mike Lee, who sit on the panel that will preside over the hearings, tested positive for COVID-19 last day. Both were in the White House on Sept. 26 when President Donald Trump introduced Barrett as his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month.
Trump was taken to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington on Friday just hours after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
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“The previously scheduled floor activity will be rescheduled until after October 19 … The important work of the Senate committees can and will continue as each committee sees fit,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell added that the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee would begin Barrett’s confirmation hearings on Oct. 12 as scheduled. Senators have the option of attending hearings in person or remotely.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said McConnell’s decision was dangerous and reckless.
“If it is too dangerous to have the Senate in session, it is also too dangerous for committee hearings to continue,” Schumer said in a statement.
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On Friday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham spoke with Trump and the first thing the president asked was the Senate’s plan for Barrett’s confirmation, a Graham aide said.
However, McConnell’s announcement could mean that Congress will not pass any new coronavirus aid bill in the coming days, despite negotiations this week between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House officials.
Those talks resumed after talks reached a stalemate in August. Congressional Democrats were seeking more than $ 2 trillion in new aid to combat the pandemic, and many Republican senators were supporting a significantly less or no more funding response at this time.
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