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US: Dems delay Sessions vote

By  |  January 31, 2017

Senate Democrats used a procedural move Tuesday to stall a committee vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions’s nomination to be attorney general, one day after the growing controversy surrounding President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim nations led to the firing of an acting attorney general for insubordination.

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    The Senate Judiciary Committee will reconvene at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to vote on Sessions’s nomination, Chairman Chuck Grassley said.

    The announcement came after the committee took a break to allow members to vote on the floor confirmation of Elaine Chao as Transportation Secretary.

    When the meeting reconvened, Sen. Mazie Hirono told Grassley that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer intended to invoke the two-hour rule against holding committee meetings beyond the first two hours of the Senate’s day.

    Sessions’s already-difficult path to confirmation was made more contentious by Trump’s firing Monday night of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who deemed the president’s order illegal and said she would not have Justice attorneys defend it.

    Trump quickly replaced Yates with Dana Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He rescinded the Yates order and said Justice will defend the executive order.

    Full Content: The Hill

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