Democrats stop waiting on Feinstein to move Biden judges

The Senate Judiciary Committee had only met once until this week to vote on President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees in the two months that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has been absent from the Senate.

The meetings are usually held on Thursdays but have been skipped or canceled for weeks at a time as Feinstein recovers from shingles at home in California.

Feinstein’s absence has left Democrats unable to move judges without Republican support, creating a logjam on the committee that has led to growing pressure for her to resign.

She proposed that another Democrat replace her on the panel temporarily while she recovers, but Republicans, who have little appetite to help Democrats advance liberal judges, blocked that move on Tuesday.