Senate

Senate panel sets vote on Sessions for AG

by Jordain Carney - 01/17/17 5:59 PM ET

The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to move forward with Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (Ala.) attorney general nomination early next week.

Committee staffers announced on Tuesday that the committee will vote on Sessions’s nomination to lead the Justice Department on Jan. 24. The move means that Sessions will not get a confirmation vote on “day one” of the Trump administration.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a member of the committee, also publicly released his follow-up questions for Sessions on Tuesday, including asking him to weigh in on if President-Elect Donald Trump should have to divest his assets.

{mosads}Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, urged Democrats on Tuesday not to delay Trump’s nominees, specifically pointing to Sessions and Rex Tillerson, his pick to be secretary of State.

“They should not delay for just delay’s sake, which unfortunately some have threatened to do,” he said. “[Delaying] won’t help this new administration, won’t make America a safer place and it will make us more vulnerable to those around the word who want to disrupt a peaceful transition of power.”

Cornyn previously pointed to Sessions as one of the nominees Republicans hoped to confirm on “day one.”

Republicans have repeatedly noted that the then-Democratic controlled Senate confirmed seven of President Obama’s nominees on the same day of his 2009 inauguration.

A spokesman for the committee told The Hill late last week that any committee member will be able to request a vote on Session’s nomination be “held over” until the committee’s next meeting.

Sessions is expected to clear the Judiciary Committee. He’ll also need 50 votes to be approved by the full Senate, with possible swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) already pledging to support him.

Tags Donald Trump Jeff Sessions Joe Manchin John Cornyn Patrick Leahy