Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed on Monday to be “picky” with President Joe Biden’s nominees if Republicans reclaim a Senate majority in the November midterms.
“We’ll be way more picky over who gets to head various boards and commissions and agencies that are important to how all of you function in our society,” McConnell said while speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon in Florence, Ky.
“If I’m the majority leader, we’ll be really picky on appointees. There are 1,200 executive branch appointments that come to us. They’re not all as important as the Supreme Court, but many of them are quite important and have to be confirmed by the Senate,” McConnell continued. “We’re in the personnel business, the House is not.”
McConnell has previously suggested he would block any Supreme Court nominee proposed by Biden before 2024 if Republicans regained a majority in the Senate.
“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled,” McConnell said in a radio interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt in 2021, according to the New York Times. “So I think it’s highly unlikely.”
He also said Republicans would rule out approving any more spending bills in the 50-50 tied Senate before the midterms.
Before November, “we won’t be doing any spending bills,” McConnell stated.
“If we can find any ways to make some progress with the country during the time of divided government, we’ll do it,” he added.
Republicans are slightly favored to win the retake the Senate majority in November, but seven seats are still toss-ups, according to RealClearPolitics.