Senate GOP Ends Filibuster Over Judicial Nominations

By Helen Dewar

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, October 24, 2001; Page A23

Senate Republicans abandoned yesterday a two-week effort to force speedier confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees, claiming they had made their point by stalling action on "must-pass" spending bills.

The decision, announced by Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) after a discussion at the GOP's weekly luncheon, clears the way for passage of a $15.6 billion foreign aid spending bill, along with four other spending bills still pending before the Senate for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Senate Republicans "decided that the responsible thing for us to do at this time is to focus on those issues that need to be addressed as a result of the events of Sept. 11 and the anthrax attack here in our office buildings," Lott told reporters after the lunch.

But Lott and other Republicans vowed to continue pressing for faster action on Bush's judicial nominations. Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said he has instructed Democrats to act expeditiously on all nominations, although he insisted that this has nothing to do with GOP demands.

The Senate approved four more judicial nominations yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmation votes to 12 for the year. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to act on Thursday on some or all of five others who received hearings last week. Another set of hearings is also scheduled for Thursday. More than 50 nominations were awaiting action in the Senate when the GOP began its stalling tactics earlier this month.

Republicans contend that Democrats have been dragging their heels on nominations since they took control of the Senate in early June. Democrats say they are moving as fast as they can and more speedily than Republicans did in processing President Bill Clinton's nominations for the bench.

In a procedural vote aimed at forcing action, the Senate began the day yesterday by voting to continue its filibuster against the foreign aid spending bill, with Democrats falling 10 votes short of the required 60 votes to end the filibuster. But Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, signaled that the effort was running out of steam by voting "present" instead of voting with his GOP colleagues to continue the delay.

"I thought it was time to get on and find a way to resolve this problem," Stevens explained after the vote.

A senior Republican aide said it became clear at the congressional leaders' weekly breakfast with Bush yesterday morning that Democrats were not being swayed by the stalling tactics. Bush asked if there was any progress on the judges, and Daschle showed no signs of backing down, the aide said.

The aide also said Republicans had concluded that they could do just as well, perhaps better, next year on the assumption that Bush is likely to gain in strength as the war progresses and that there would be a greater sense of urgency because more judicial vacancies would have occurred.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company