Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus pandemic will not stop the Senate from confirming more judges during his interview with Salem radio host Hugh Hewitt's show on Wednesday.
The Senate is scheduled to come back to from recess on May 4 and other agenda items are waiting now that the fourth version of the coronavirus relief bill passed on Tuesday.
"Mr. Leader, it wouldn’t be a conversation if we didn’t talk about judges. I know you folks are overwhelmed. You’ve done an amazing job. But our friend, Senator Graham, we’ve got to get him holding some hearings for Rick Richmond and nominees like John Flynn who aren’t even up there and votes for Mark Scarsi. California is out of judges. When are we going to get back to hearings and votes?" Hewitt asked.
"Well, the current plan is to go back in session on May the 4th. I haven’t seen anything that would discourage me from doing that. And as soon as we get back in session, we’ll start confirming judges again," McConnell replied.
"We need to have hearings, and we need to confirm judges. Hugh, you and I have discussed this before. My motto for the year is leave no vacancy behind. That hasn’t changed. The pandemic will not prevent us from achieving that goal," he added.
"That is music to my ears," Hewitt said.
With additional funding being added to the Paycheck Protection Program, allowing small businesses to take out loans to keep their employees on the payroll, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried to shift the blame on the delay to McConnell.
McConnell reminded people in his statement when a deal was struck that it was Democrats who delayed the additional funding for the PPP after it had run out so more items could be added.
"Republicans never wanted this crucial program for workers and small businesses to shut down. We tried to pass additional funding a week before it lapsed. But Democratic leaders blocked the money and spent days trying to negotiate extraneous issues that were never on the table."
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