A new battle is stirring on Capitol Hill as Senate Democrats have threatened to not move forward with confirmations of President Donald Trump’s US attorney nominees around the country – already following through with a hold on one of his picks.
Senate Democrats say they are merely following precedent established by now-Vice President JD Vance under President Joe Biden, when the then-senator held up US attorney nominations in protest of what he called the political prosecutions against Trump.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday that he would hold the nomination of Jason Reding Quiñones as the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
In the announcement, Durbin said he would leave “open the possibility of holds on future U.S. Attorney nominees,” citing Vance’s previous moves.
“Because of then-Senator JD Vance holding US Attorney nominations during the Biden Administration, there is now a new precedent for roll call votes on the Floor for confirming U.S. Attorney nominees,” Durbin said in a statement. “As I’ve said time and time again—there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and another set for Democrats.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday called the block by Durbin an “aggressive, unprecedented attack” on the criminal justice system.
“Make no mistake: the ‘precedent’ the Ranking Member claims then-Senator Vance set does not exist,” Grassley said in a statement. “Vance’s holds were limited to a small number of U.S. Attorney nominees in the latter half of the Biden administration. Placing a blanket hold on all U.S. Attorney nominees before the Trump administration has filled even a single one of the 93 Attorneys’ Offices would constitute an aggressive, unprecedented attack on the American criminal justice system.”
It’s not new for senators to use tactics to block administrations led by the opposing party from enacting their agendas – tactics that are in turn used against them in the same, if not expanded, way.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, during President Barack Obama’s second term, for instance, often employed a parliamentary tactic used by his predecessor as Senate majority leader – Democratic Sen. Harry Reid – to stop amendments on the floor, expanding the use of the chamber’s rule to get bills more quickly passed.
But stopping Trump from being able to fill the 93 US attorney slots across the US would place a notable strain on the justice system and could open up a continued tit-for-tat next time Democrats control the White House.
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