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President Donald Trump listens while Senator Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) speaks during a rally at Dubuque Regional Airport in Dubuque, Iowa, on Nov. 1. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
The news that Sen. Charles Grassley has contracted coronavirus, likely keeping him off the Senate floor until he recovers, also dashed GOP hopes for a quick revote on controversial Federal Reserve nominee Judy Shelton.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would return to Capitol Hill again if needed to block Shelton’s nomination again, as she did Tuesday, giving Democrats the upper hand.
“I spoke to Vice President-elect Harris and told her this would happen. She said, ‘If my vote is needed, I will be there.’ If they should try to bring up another vote, you’d have check with her, but my guess is she would do the same,” Schumer said.
Shelton came out on the wrong end of a 47-50 vote procedural vote on Tuesday. Two GOP senators thought to favor Shelton, Grassley and Florida Republican Rick Scott, were absent due to exposure to coronavirus. Grassley, at 87 the Senate President Pro Tempore and in the line of presidential succession, tweeted later he had tested positive for the virus.
“I remain symptom free & in isolation. I continue to feel good Thx for all the messages of encouragement & prayers,” Grassley tweeted Wednesday. Grassley, with almost 700,000 followers, is one of the most popular Twitter users on Capitol Hill.
If Grassley and Scott had been in attendance Tuesday, as well as Shelton opponent Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate would have been evenly split, allowing Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie in Shelton’s favor. That still could have happened if Democratic attendance wavered during the week before the Senate leaves town for a weeklong Thanksgiving break and Grassley and Scott were to be allowed on the floor.
But Harris’ availability, combined with the presumption of Grassley’s unavailability for the next two weeks as he fights the virus, shifts the math in Democrats’ favor. And Democrats will get an additional reinforcement in the form of Mark Kelly, who will be certified by Arizona to be its next senator late in the month, though it us unclear exactly when he would be seated.
That it should be Grassley’s vote that would be missing is ironic, given he has been the Cal Ripken of Senate votes. McConnell noted Wednesday on the Senate floor Grassley broke the record for not missing a vote in 2016 and kept adding to it for almost five more years.
“Before yesterday, the senior Senator for Iowa had not missed a single vote in this body since 1993, when he was in Iowa helping with historic flooding. Since then, across twenty-seven years and 8,927 votes, Sen. Grassley had shown up for every one,” he said.
“Certainly, if any member of this body has the good health and stamina to kick the virus to the curb, it’s Sen. Grassley. So we’ll look forward to seeing him soon.”
