It's Tuesday, April 26, and Day 73 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 43 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
They are continuing work on the energy and water appropriations bill which probably won't end up getting a vote in the House because the House doesn't do stuff and which the White House has announced could be vetoed anyway. In spite of all that, Mitch McConnell is once again boasting about how productive his Senate has been. This morning it was all about how he's returned to "regular order" and gotten committees working again.
When the new majority resolved to get the Senate back to work, we knew we'd have to get committees functioning again first. We believe that would be critical to helping members on both sides rediscover their voices and find common ground and then develop real stakes in the outcome. […] By returning to regular order, we've opened up the process and empowered senators both those who sit on the appropriations committee and those who do not to have more of a say in the appropriations legislation. […] The progress we've seen already is encouraging. It shows what's possible when the senate gets back to a productive legislative process.
Apparently Sen. Chuck Grassley hasn't gotten that memo in the Judiciary Committee. You know, the one that could be having hearings on Garland's nomination. Not only has Grassley not done that, last week, his committee didn't do anything.
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It is worth noting that the Senate Judiciary Committee did not hold any hearings this week. The committee postponed a hearing on the Crime Victims Fund that was originally scheduled for this Tuesday, but there was nothing else on the schedule. One can’t help but wonder if there was a better way to spend that free time than by doing literally nothing?
Doing. Literally. Nothing. Not even spinning wheels like the whole Senate. That's Mitch McConnell's and Chuck Grassley's Senate.