By Ashley Killough and Kevin Liptak
Democrats on Monday delayed action in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
Gorsuch will now face a committee vote April 3 after Democrats requested that the nomination be held for one week during a committee meeting.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley formally announced that three nominations that the judiciary committee is meeting on right now — including Gorsuch — will be held over by one week.
The delay had been widely expected.
The other two nominations were Rod Rosenstein, of Maryland, to be Deputy Attorney General, and Rachel Brand, of Iowa, to be Associate Attorney General, both of the Department of Justice.
With current Senate rules, Gorsuch will need the support of 60 members in order to be confirmed, meaning Republicans — who have only 52 senators — will need votes from Democrats. However, some Republicans — including the President — have suggested changing the rules to lowering the threshold for Supreme Court nominations to be a simple majority, more colloquially known as the “nuclear option.”
The White House criticized Democrats’ moves to slow Gorsuch’s nomination.
“The fact is an attempted filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee is rare, and to do so in this context with such an eminently qualified and brilliant judge, is nothing short of obstructionism,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Monday, insisting that Democrats’ moves toward a filibuster aren’t in line with previous Senate consideration of Supreme Court nominees.
A filibuster “undermines decades of Senate tradition,” Spicer said. “He deserves a fair up or down vote.”
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