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WASHINGTON ― "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday unilaterally forced a change in Senate rules to make it easier to confirm most of President Donald Trump’s nominees to lifetime court seats.
McConnell used the rarely invoked “nuclear option” to permanently reduce the amount of time that senators can debate most nominees ― district court judges and lower-level executive nominees ― from 30 hours to two. The change does not apply to Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court nominees or circuit court nominees.
All but two Republicans, Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine), voted to make the change. Every Democrat opposed it. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) missed the vote.
The final vote was 48-51. We’ll spare you the procedural talk, but the vote was technically to overrule the chair on allowing 30 hours of debate on these nominees, which is why the “no” votes changed the rule.
McConnell tried to make the change on Tuesday with a resolution but fell short of the 60 votes needed to move it forward. So on Wednesday, he took the more extreme and partisan approach of using the nuclear option, which requires only 51 votes to make a change.
Ahead of the vote, McConnell and other Republicans complained about Democrats delaying votes on Trump’s nominees and said it justified changing the rules ― the same rules they abused to deny Barack Obama votes on his judicial nominees for most of his presidency..."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-senate-rules-trump-judges-mitch-mcconnell_n_5ca4fe29e4b094d3f5c57a92?ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__040419
