WASHINGTON — Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday that he is confident Congress will avoid a government shutdown at the end of April, and that the Senate will confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court pick this week.
Although Neil Gorsuch may not have 60 votes in favor, McConnell said on “Fox News Sunday’’ that he is prepared to change Senate rules to end a Democratic filibuster on the nomination.
The Kentucky Republican said the appropriations committees of the House and Senate are working on budget bills to fund the government after April 28.
“We’ll be talking to Senate Democrats,’’ he said of the budget measure. “It will require 60 votes.’’
McConnell said Republicans and Democrats will negotiate about the Trump administration’s priorities: funding to build a wall on the US border with Mexico, cuts to domestic programs, and increases in military spending.
He said the goal is to pass a budget bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
McConnell added that he is “confident Senate Democrats are not going to want to shut down the government’’ because Congress, rather than the president, tends to get the blame in public opinion when such events occur.
McConnell said he didn’t know whether there would be eight Democratic votes to overcome a possible filibuster of Gorsuch to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But the majority leader suggested that he is ready to invoke the so-called “nuclear option’’ and change the rules of the Senate to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.
“What I’m telling you is that Judge Gorsuch is going to be confirmed,’’ McConnell said. “The way in which that occurs is in the hands of the Democratic minority.’’
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who helped end use of the filibuster for non-Supreme Court nominees in 2013, said he believes that Gorsuch will not obtain 60 votes.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Monday on advancing Gorsuch’s nomination. McConnell has promised a final up-or-down confirmation vote Friday. Three Democrats, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have announced support for Gorsuch.
“Instead of changing the rules, which is up to Mitch McConnell and the Republican majority, why doesn’t President Trump, Democrats, and Republicans in the Senate sit down and try to come up with a mainstream nominee?’’ the New York Democrat said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.’’
“When a nominee doesn’t get 60 votes, you shouldn’t change the rules.’’ Schumer said. “You should change the nominee.’’
Trump has told McConnell that he should change the rules if Gorsuch’s nomination gets stalled.
“I would say, if you can, Mitch, go nuclear,’’ Trump said Feb. 1, a day after announcing the nomination. “Because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in the web.’’
After failure of their effort to repeal former president Obama’s health care law, congressional Republicans have been reversing dozens of Obama-era rules affecting the environment, education, and the energy sector.
The GOP is using a largely unknown but highly effective legislative tool that allows a simple majority in the House and Senate to overturn regulations that often took years to craft. Republicans have cast the effort as overturning eight years of excessive government regulation and boosting business.
The president has signed eight resolutions revoking regulations issued during the final months of Obama’s presidency.
