Senate Democrats confirmed the Biden administration’s 220th lifetime appointment to the federal judiciary on Wednesday — and are poised to add to that total as they wind down their time in Washington before Thanksgiving.
Lawmakers voted beyond midnight to end debate on a handful of other nominees. On Thursday, they’ll vote to confirm Sharad Desai to be district judge for the District of Arizona.
Beyond that, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have half a dozen more nominees primed for final Senate approval — though the actual confirmations won’t take place until after Thanksgiving.
Of note: Vice President-elect JD Vance was present and voted no on the latter half of these judicial moves, so he was near the Senate floor until around midnight.
“We have a lot of excellent nominees to work through,” Schumer said on the floor.
The Senate confirmed 234 judges during Trump’s first term in office, a tally Democrats and the Biden White House are hoping to eclipse during the lame duck.
Republican absences aided Democrats in their push earlier Wednesday.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) missed votes earlier in the day, while Indiana Gov.-elect and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) was absent for the entire day. That allowed Democrats to clear judges without the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris — who’s vacationing in Hawaii — even when some nominees lost a vote from the Democratic conference.
