This Week in the Senate: 3/25/2019

This week, the Senate is holding votes on one nomination and a few legislative measures, and the Judiciary Committee will possibly convene an executive business meeting.

Floor Action:
Monday:

• The Senate will vote at 5:30 pm to invoke cloture on the nomination of U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona Magistrate Judge Bridget Bade to be a judge of the Ninth Circuit. Originally nominated in August last year, Bade's nomination was supported at that time by Sens. Jeff Flake and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The Grand Canyon state's Senate delegation experienced 100% turnover over the winter, and new Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) has publicly expressed support for her, while Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has not. Nevertheless, the fact that Bade did not receive a party-line vote (her vote was 17–5) in committee signifies that Sinema has returned a blue slip on her nomination, and thus will likely support her (all previous circuit court nominees without blue slips returned had unanimous Democratic opposition in committee). If confirmed, Bade will take the Ninth Circuit from 16–8 Democratic to 16–9 Democratic appointees, with four outstanding vacancies.

Tuesday:

• The Senate will vote to confirm Bade and invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 8, the Green New Deal Resolution. The expectation is that all Republicans will vote no, so cloture will not be invoked, and thus the Senate will proceed to vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 268, a disaster assistance funding measure.

Wednesday:

• The Senate will likely have further votes on H.R. 268, and might pass the bill outright.

Thursday:

• The Senate will likely debate the Rules Committee resolution changing postcloture time rules, but votes have not been scheduled. I'll have a supplemental post up later this week to explain the process behind the move.

On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee might will hold an executive session to vote on and/or hold over the following nominations (the number in the parentheses appearing after the nominee's name signifies whether this is the first or second time appearing on the agenda; first-time appearances are typically held over and nominees appearing for the second time usually receive votes):

Court of Appeals:

1. Daniel P. Collins, to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit (1)
2. Kenneth Kiyul Lee, to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit (1)

District Court:

1. James Wesley Hendrix, to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas (1)
2. Sean D. Jordan, to be a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas (1)
3. Mark T. Pittman, to be a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas (1)

Department of Justice:

1. Wing Chau, to be United States Marshal for the District of Rhode Island (1)
2. Ramona L. Dohman, to be United States Marshal for the District of Minnesota (1)

Update # 1 (4/1/2019): Linked to executive business meeting and added Department of Justice nominees.