According to reports, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley intends to hold two confirmation hearings in November following the elections. This is an appropriately aggressive move that will allow the Senate to “leave no vacancy behind” as Senator McConnell used to say — and one that should be emulated by other committees in the Senate.
This should come as no surprise because no one works harder than Chairman Grassley, who is always laser-focused on getting outcomes in the Senate. It’s the smart move.
In the depressing event that Republicans lose the Senate, the lame duck will be the last train out of the station for the vast majority of Trump nominees. Senator Chuck Schumer and once-and-aspiring Senator Sherrod Brown have already said as much insofar as it relates to judicial nominees, and you have to imagine that applies with force to executive-branch picks.
Even for the Thom Tillises and Bill Cassidys of the world, it will be better for agencies to be staffed by Senate-confirmed individuals (absent disqualifying personal or professional records) than for the last two years of the Trump administration to be thrown into further chaos by a parade of “acting” officials under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
Even if — inshallah — Republicans hold the Senate, the odds are nearly certain that they will do so with razor-thin margins. In such a situation the confirmation process will be considerably more difficult even for down-the-line picks thanks to problems of attendance, policy disagreements with Senator Lisa Murkowski, and hostage-taking. Good governance counsels in favor of clearing the decks now for qualified and credible nominees even if Republicans keep their majority.
Thanks to the development of en bloc voting — whereby the Senate can confirm hundreds of subcabinet and non–Article III nominees in one fell swoop — the Senate floor is no longer the main bottleneck when it comes to clearing the decks. That distinction falls to the committees, which need to report nominees out to the floor to be eligible for the en bloc package. That’s why it’s critical for the Judiciary Committee to hold two hearings in November, doing the hard work of feeding the Senate floor, and why it’s to Chairman Grassley’s great credit that he is doing that work.
The other committees should follow suit. It’s not hard for them to do it. With the exception of the Appropriations Committee, there is no body in the Senate more rigid and hidebound than the Judiciary Committee; if Judiciary can do it, so can everyone else.
Looking at the current list of nominations in committee, there’s plenty of work to be done. Look at the numbers by committee: Agriculture (5), Armed Services (6), Banking (6), Commerce (4), EPW (3), Finance (4), Foreign Relations (46), HSGAC (7), HELP (6), Judiciary (27), Rules (2), Veterans Affairs (7). Of course, not all of these nominees will make it; some are surely languishing due to legitimate intraparty spats. But they should do what they can to process whomever they can. If that means, say, Foreign Relations — with its 47 nominees — needs to follow Judiciary’s lead and hold two hearings to clear its backlog, then there is absolutely no good reason why it shouldn’t.
Chairman Grassley’s longtime campaign slogan is “Grassley Works.” The other chairmen should take note and do likewise.