Outbreak prompts Senate to take 2-week break [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday moved to adjourn the senate for 2 weeks and resume on October 19 following the COVID-19 diagnosis of three GOP senators and other colleagues.
• Even with the postponement, McConnell said that confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barett, President Donald Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, would still begin on October 12.
• Democrats described the move as “hypocritical” as the GOP-dominated senate would continue to proceed with the confirmation hearing despite the COVID-19 threat.

On Monday, the Senate postponed floor activity until October 19 after President Donald Trump and three Republican senators have contracted COVID-19.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate’s Majority Leader, decided to adjourn the senate. This is the first time the Capitol Hill implemented a suspension due to the pandemic since the resumption in early May from weeks of hiatus.

Despite the out-of-town declaration, the Senate Judiciary Committee is still expected to begin its hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett on October 12. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) formally scheduled October 12 to kick start Barrett’s confirmation hearing.

“We are full steam ahead with a fair through and timely confirmation process,” McConnell said on Monday.

Nonetheless, McConnell is committed to keeping the legislative floor on hold to minimize the risk of spreading the virus while proceeding with Barrett’s confirmation later this month.

Senators Thom Tillis (N.C.), Mike Lee (Utah), and Ron Johnson (Wis.), all Republicans, announced last Friday that they tested positive for COVID-19. Other three GOP senators, Ben Sasse (Neb.), James Lankford (Okla.), and Ted Cruz (Texas), tested negative but would self-quarantine following their interaction with virus-infected colleagues.

“Our biggest enemy obviously is … the coronavirus, keeping everybody healthy and well and in place to do our job,” McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt late last week, referring to their session to confirm Barrett prior to the Election Day.

The senator continued: “The members have some of them done their interviews in previous hearings remotely. This sort of underscores the need to do that. I think every precaution needs to be taken because we don’t anticipate any Democratic support at all … and therefore everybody needs to be in an all hands on deck mindset.”

Democrats have asked to delay the hearings as they noted that the proceedings should not be a priority of the Republicans, compared with the health and welfare of senators alongside their workers and the media whom they converse with every day.

Democrats said that McConnell’s act of postponing the Senate but proceeding with Barrett’s hearing nomination as business-as-usual was hypocritical, although they did agree with his decision to adjourn.

At least for this week, the absences of the aforementioned GOP senators would put McConnell’s normal 53-seat majority to 47 seats. It would refrain him from having a quorum as 51 votes are needed to conduct one.

Source: The Hill