(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the fast-track schedule for confirming Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee won't be affected by Covid-19 diagnoses of the president and three Republican senators, despite rising concern about a wider spread of the virus in the government.
McConnell said Saturday he'll seek consent from Democrats to put the Senate on hiatus for the next two weeks, but that the work on confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett will continue.
@SenJudiciary confirmation hearings for Judge Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court will convene on October 12th as scheduled by Chairman Graham. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/7ThKZPJBZG
“The Senate's floor schedule will not interrupt the thorough, fair, and historically supported confirmation process previously laid out” by Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, McConnell said in a statement.
Republicans are planning to hold hearings starting the week of Oct. 12 and have a vote before the Nov. 3 election.
The Senate is scheduled for a full session next week. McConnell is seeking to put the chamber in a pro forma session, meaning most senators would not have to be in Washington, but committee work wouldn't be affected. Senators could be called back with 24 hours' notice for a vote if necessary.
The schedule laid out by Graham would have the committee voting on Barrett's confirmation by Oct. 22, and McConnell has said he would bring it to the full Senate as soon as the panel's work is done. That would put a final Senate confirmation on the floor about a week before Election Day.
Two Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, are infected with the coronavirus. A third GOP senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, also said he tested positive. Nebraska Republican Ben Sasse said he's undergoing more testing after an initial negative test and plans to return to Washington for in-person work starting Oct. 12.
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McConnell noted members of the committee can attend hearings remotely and he expected all Republican members to be able to participate.
Senate Rules
However, Graham would need the votes of either Lee or Tillis in a committee with a 12-10 Republican edge. Josh Hawley, a third member of the committee who sat between Tillis and Lee at a Rose Garden ceremony for Barrett a week ago, said Saturday that he is being tested for the virus and is awaiting results.
Senate rules require a quorum of a majority of the committee - 12 members - for a final vote on Barrett's confirmation, and senators must vote in person if their vote will change the outcome, according to a Republican aide familiar with the committee rules.
That would require all of the committee's Republicans to show up in person for the vote, now expected on Oct. 22, if Democrats decide not to show up.
In the full Senate, Republicans have 53 seats in the chamber. But two GOP lawmakers, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have said they oppose holding the vote before the election. That leaves McConnell little leeway if there are Republicans unable to vote as a result of illness.
Democrats argued against what they called a rush to approve Barrett, adding the spread of infections to their list of reasons. They want to delay it until after the election or even the next president's inauguration in January.
‘Health and Safety'
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said McConnell's move to recess the Senate for two weeks after three Republicans tested positive for Covid-19 demonstrates that it's also too dangerous to move ahead with hearings.
“Leader McConnell and Chairman Graham's monomaniacal drive to confirm Judge Barrett at all costs needlessly threatens the health and safety of Senators, staff, and all those who work in the Capitol complex,” Schumer said in a statement Saturday. The action turns “an illegitimate process into a reckless and dangerous one.”
The committee's Democrats called for a delay on Saturday in a joint letter to Graham. Proceeding with hearings now “threatens the health and safety of all those who are called upon to do the work of this body,” they said in the letter released by ranking member Diane Feinstein.
Barrett, an appellate court judge who is Trump's pick to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, contracted the coronavirus earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the matter. But meetings with the president, top aides and senators in recent days to help advance her nomination spurred concerns about the process serving as a potential spreading channel.
The Trump administration hasn't released any estimated matrix of infections related to the president. But at least eight people have tested positive after attending the White House ceremony where Barrett's nomination was announced on Sept. 26.
Tillis, unlike Lee and most other attendees, was pictured wearing a mask. On Thursday, he went to the Senate floor to cast a vote. Lee and Jenkins were photographed at the Rose Garden ceremony without face masks.
Lee met with Barrett on Tuesday, and said Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He attended a lunch with all Senate Republicans on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning took part in a regularly scheduled Senate Judiciary meeting to discuss pending nominations; most members of the panel were present.
After the Judiciary meeting, Lee skipped another Senate GOP luncheon and missed a full Senate vote. His spokesman, Conn Carroll, said it was during that time that Lee's coronavirus test was administered.
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