WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., is treading carefully between echoing President Donald Trump’s frustration with the judicial blue slip process while also acknowledging the critical role the century-old practice of home state senators signing off on nominees can play in the confirmation process.
On Wednesday, three Alabamians nominated to federal judgeships were able to have their confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee quickly after they were nominated last month, because both Britt and Sen. Tommy Tuberville supported them.
“I think (the blue slip) is something that both sides have utilized…to be able to work and get good people, and that’s what we’re certainly doing in Alabama,” Britt, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told Alabama Daily News. “That’s what we did (Wednesday).”
But that process has been stalled for some judicial nominees nominated to roles in blue states over objections from Democratic senators. Trump has thus recently railed against the process that allows home state senators to block some federal judges and U.S. attorney nominees by failing to return or negatively responding to a blue colored form, known as the blue slip.
The president wants to see his nominees confirmed rapidly in the Senate. So far, the Senate has confirmed 135 nominees.
“I understand President Trump’s frustration,” Britt told ADN Thursday.
However, the Alabama Republican didn’t explicitly call for the Senate tradition to be abandoned, as Trump has, but instead blamed Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for politicizing the process.
“I’d like to see Democrats work in good faith with President Trump,” Britt said. “It is clear they are not. It is clear that Chuck Schumer has absolutely no desire to come to the table and have a meaningful conversation with President Trump.”
Tuberville has previously said he shared Trump’s opposition to the blue slip process, arguing the practice is preventing “common sense judges” from being placed in blue states.
While the top Judiciary Committee Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, has come out in full support of the blue slip, arguing it sets up Trump’s nominees for “SUCCESS NOT FAILURE” he said on social media last week.
“It’s used by both sides to have a seat at the table,” Britt said. “Chuck (Schumer) needs to be reasonable about what he is talking about. He is clearly being unreasonable. This process can work and should work.”
The blue slip debate is just one piece of the larger conversation happening on the Hill around the Senate’s slow process of confirming Trump’s nominees. Senate Republicans are trying to change the chamber rules to speed up the confirmations by voting on Trump’s nominees in batches. Britt is part of a GOP working group that’s focused on the rules changes.
Currently, the Senate is voting on nominees one by one, a time-consuming process.
“I’m working to unclog that,” Britt told ADN.
Britt’s office has been circulating a fact sheet showing the slow rate of confirmations in the second Trump administration compared to previous administrations.
Senate Republicans are considering changing the rules to allow for voting on multiple nominees en bloc. The change would only apply to executive branch nominees, not judicial appointments or Cabinet positions, the Associated Press reported.
Schumer pushed back on the GOP’s proposed changes Wednesday, arguing that Republicans want to “blow-up Senate rules” to confirm “more of Trump’s lousy, unqualified nominees.’
“That’s not just reckless—it’s dangerous,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “It guts the Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent, weakens our checks and balances, and guarantees that historically bad nominees will only get worse with even less oversight.”
Tuberville said Thursday it’s time for a “bold move” to speed up the process for confirming nominees in the Senate.
“The Democrats have absolutely just frozen everything,” Tuberville told ADN. “We can’t get anything done. We are way behind on what President Biden had the opportunity to do in the first seven or eight months of confirmations.”
The rule changes would only need a simple majority to pass in the Senate.