This Week in the Senate: 12/9/2019

This week, the Senate is holding votes on five nominations, including two to the judiciary.

Floor Action:¹
Monday:

• The Senate will vote at 5:30 pm to invoke cloture on the nomination of Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Patrick Bumatay to the Ninth Circuit. Bumatay's nomination is opposed by Senate Democrats due to him not having positive blue slips from either of his state's senators. If confirmed, he would succeed Judge Carlos Bea.

Tuesday:

• The Senate will vote to confirm Bumatay, and then will vote to invoke cloture on the nomination of Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division Lawrence VanDyke to the Ninth Circuit. If confirmed, he would succeed Judge Jay Bybee. VanDyke is opposed by Democrats due to positions he took as solicitor general of Montana and Nevada, the fact that he has limited ties to Nevada (yet he's been nominated to fill a seat there), and that neither of Nevada's senators have returned positive blue slips on his nomination. VanDyke was also given a "not qualified" rating by the American Bar Association, but many people have cast doubt on the process undertaken to issue that rating.

Wednesday:

• The Senate will vote to confirm VanDyke, and then will vote to invoke cloture on the nominations of Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to be Ambassador to Russia, Stephen Hahn to be Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and Aurelia Skipwith to be Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Confirmation votes on Sullivan, Hahn, and Skipwith will likely occur later in the day.

Thursday:

• The Senate will vote to approve the conference report for the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

Notes:

¹The floor schedule is an approximate guide to when votes may occur. It may not necessarily be completely accurate due to things changing in the Senate during the week.


Update # 1 (12/12/2019): Conference report not being voted on.