Senate Democrats upset at Republican plans to push forward on plans to vote for a Supreme Court nominee resorted to using procedural rules to frustrate regular business of the chamber on Tuesday, The Hill reported.
“Because the Senate Republicans have no respect for the institution, we won’t have business as usual here in the Senate,” Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said from the Senate floor.
Schumer invoked what’s known as the two-hour rule, The Hill reported, citing an unidentified Democratic aide. The rule can be used to disallow Senate committee hearings if the chamber has been in session for more than two hours.
Requests to permit hearings after two hours is routinely granted, The Hill noted, and the Senate convened at 10 a.m., meaning permission was required to hold any committee hearings after noon.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sought to hold a meeting at 2:30 p.m. with the director of national counterintelligence presumably to discuss election security, but Schumer objected.
Schumer spoke on the Senate floor Monday to decry Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plans, which he first stated on Friday and then again earlier Monday, to hold a vote “this year” on any Supreme Court nominee President Donald Trump puts forth to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87 after serving more than 27 years on the high court.
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