Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday the Senate will vote on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch next Friday, April 7, before lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess in Congress.
“We’re going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed,” McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There will be an opportunity for the Democrats to invoke cloture. We’ll see where that ends. The Democratic Leader who will be out here shortly says that we will not get cloture, so that is a good question to ask him. But it’ll be really up to them how the process to confirm Judge Gorsuch goes forward.”
Democrats are mounting a filibuster of the nomination, and Republicans, who number 52 in the Senate, are trying to bring on board the eight Democrats needed to break the filibuster.
If they fail to get 60 votes, Republicans could change the rules and confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority — a decision known as the “nuclear option” — though the move would be highly contentious.
Gorsuch completed his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings last week and is expected to be voted out of committee on Monday, April 3.