WASHINGTON -- The Senate confirmed its 40th circuit judge Wednesday, filling nearly a quarter of the circuit court system with conservative appointments under President Donald Trump.
But while Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and his allies have celebrated the milestone in approving Kenneth Lee to the federal circuit, critics say the emphasis on judicial and administration nominations has derailed the Senate's legislative agenda.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, denounced the shift Wednesday. "Leader McConnell has turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard," he said. "It is time for Sen. McConnell to return the Senate to the legislating body it once was."
Last month, the Republican majority, using the so-called nuclear option, engineered a rules change that reduced debate time over nominees, a move that was met coolly by some in the party. But most Senate Republicans welcomed the change, intended to allow the chamber to work through a backlog of nominations.
Many voiced support for McConnell's efforts to reshape the judiciary and block House legislation as a way of leaving a conservative mark.
"Sometimes if you're not doing really big things, that can tend to be very, very divisive, you're still providing a level of certainty to the American public that you're not committed to just going down a philosophical highway on your own," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said.
"I agree with him," she said of McConnell, R-Ky., "that setting our court system in the right direction with good, solid nominations is an important thing to be doing."
Lee is the latest in a series of young conservative jurists and administration appointees who have sailed through the Senate, sometimes over objections by the American Bar Association over their qualifications or accusations by activists who say the appointees traffic in racially- or sexually-biased remarks.
By contrast, the number of roll call votes on legislation has dwindled to just over a half dozen in the past five months, including a measure to fund the government through September, a bipartisan land conservation package and a pair of rebukes of presidential power that were swiftly vetoed.
But McConnell appears to have little concern about the lack of legislative agenda.
"As long as I am majority leader of the Senate, I get to set the agenda," McConnell said last week in an interview on Fox News, outlining his opposition to some of the most prominent progressive policies up for debate among the Democratic caucus.
"That's why I call myself the grim reaper. We will not have the Green New Deal, and we will not have 'Medicare for none' as long as I am majority leader of the Senate."
A Section on 05/17/2019