Democratic Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden fully intend to block President Trump's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee by withholding blue slips. Blue slips are papers on which senators offer their opinion of the nominees. Withholding them can severely slow the nomination process.
At least they had the courtesy to give Trump a heads up?
"As you are aware, in May we wrote you to explain Oregon’s long bipartisan tradition of working together to identify the most qualified candidates for judicial vacancies,” they wrote.
“As senators charged with the task for advice and consent in the selection of candidates, we take our responsibility to identify and recommend candidates to fill Oregon judicial vacancies very seriously.”
The obstructionism is strong in the Senate this year. Several Democrats have refused to turn in their blue slips to the Judiciary Committee. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was so peeved that he considered changing the rules.
The blue slip process is the last chance Democrats have to block the Republican president's nominees, considering they upended filibuster rules in 2013 when they were in power.
The RNC made an observation that this is the slowest the Senate has taken to approve a president's nominees in recent memory.
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43 days, THE HIGHEST average time it's taken for the Senate to confirm a @POTUS nominee compared to past admins in recent history. pic.twitter.com/Pi2YDGdhiM
— GOP (@GOP) July 10, 2017
Meanwhile, those nationwide protests are still going strong seven months after Trump's inauguration - which didn't happen according to dozens of lawmakers who refused to show.
The president hasn't been completely sidelined from Democrats, this week has proven. The minority leaders from both chambers, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, both complimented Trump for reaching out his hand and working with them on the debt ceiling and sharing a compassionate message on DACA.
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