WASHINGTON — The confirmation path got tougher Wednesday for April Perry, nominated to be the next U.S. Attorney in Chicago, when GOP Ohio Senator J.D. Vance revealed another senator or senators — whose identities for now aren’t public — are blocking her for reasons unknown.
Every senator has the ability, under Senate rules, to put a hold on a nominee. While the GOP or Democratic leadership has to be notified of the hold, the identity of a senator blocking a vote does not have to be made public.
Anonymous holds can be serious. For example, I know of one person waiting for a confirmation vote who has been languishing for 14 months. The person does not know the senator imposing the hold or what the issue is.
That Vance, a freshman best known as the author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” put a hold on four U.S. Attorney nominees, including Perry, is known only because he announced he was doing it to protest the Justice Department indicting former President Donald Trump.
Likewise, the public knows it is Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who put a hold on more than 300 military promotions because he outed himself.
Vance’s disclosure about other holds came in the course of a sometimes tense exchange with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Judiciary chair.
Usually U.S. attorney nominees — and military promotions — are not controversial and are taken up as a group since, under Senate rules, considering individual nominations is time consuming.
Durbin again sought unanimous consent to confirm Perry to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Todd Gee, to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi; Tara K. McGrath, to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California; and Rebecca Lutzko, to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Durbin’s argument Wednesday centered on the need for these federal prosecutors to be confirmed to pursue drug dealers to “fight the scourge of fentanyl” and other deadly narcotics.
“Don’t stand up and say you are for law and order, you’re for law enforcement, and then stop the appointment of U.S. attorneys,” Durbin said.
Vance said he would lift his holds if each nominee got an individual vote. “My position is we should not let them sail through unanimous consent.”
Durbin noted that it was common practice before President Joe Biden was elected to use unanimous consent for U.S. attorney confirmations.
Vance said that was before “we had a Department of Justice that’s been weaponized against its political opponents.”
Pressing Vance, Durbin said, “Your decision to stop U.S. attorneys taking these jobs” means they will not be in a “position to prosecute individuals of either political party who are guilty of criminal wrongdoing. Do you understand that?”
Vance then revealed, “I’m not the only person that’s holding some of these nominations.” He said he was “happy” to agree to allow a vote on the ones “where I’m the only hold” but “I can’t release the hold for other colleagues.”
Durbin offered individual votes on the four nominees, but Vance, acting as a proxy for the unnamed senators, said he was OK only pulling his objections in exchange for a vote — but could not lift holds from the other senators.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., speaking to Vance on the floor, said he was “respectfully” asking him to lift his hold on McGrath.
“I’m happy to do that,” Vance replied, since he was the only person putting a hold on her. In the end, it turned out that Vance was also the only one objecting to Gee.
So Gee and McGrath are on the road to getting the individual confirmation votes Vance demanded. Vance’s own home state nominee remains stalled.
Said Durbin, “We will keep working to make sure all four are approved,” noting that the Illinois and Ohio nominees are still in limbo. “We feel just as intensely about these vacancies as all the others, but we are seizing the moment to order up a roll call vote on the two that have been approved by both sides.”
