Senate to vote April 7 on US Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch

WASHINGTON: The US Senate will vote April 7 on confirming Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, the chamber's Republican leader announced Tuesday, amid debate over whether President Donald Trump's pick will receive the necessary votes.

"We're going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.

After a one-week delay, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Gorsuch's nomination Monday, then sending it to the floor for a full Senate vote, McConnell said.

Opposition Democrats have vowed to filibuster the nomination, meaning 60 votes will be needed to end debate in the 100-seat chamber instead of the traditional simple majority.

But McConnell said "we are optimistic that they will not be successful in keeping this good man from joining the Supreme Court very soon."

The nine-justice high court has operated with only eight members for more than a year after conservative justice Antonin Scalia died in the middle of the US presidential campaign.

Then-president Barack Obama nominated appeals court Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. But McConnell refused to hold hearings or vote on Garland, arguing that the next elected president should be the one to nominate the new justice.

Many Democrats remain livid about McConnell's obstruction last year and are prepared to mount a blockade.

Republicans hold 52 Senate seats, and will need to find eight Democrats willing to vote to overcome the filibuster.

"It's going to be a real uphill climb for him to get those 60 votes," top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said of Gorsuch.

They will likely focus on several Democrats in swing states won by Trump last year who are up for re-election in 2018.

Should Republicans fail, Senate leadership has indicated it might be ready to implement the "nuclear option" -- changing longstanding Senate rules to lower the bar from 60 votes to 51 to break filibusters for all presidential nominees including Supreme Court picks.

"It'll really be up to them how the process to confirm Judge Gorsuch goes forward," McConnell said of Democrats, when asked whether he had enough Republican support for the nuclear option.

Gorsuch, 49, a federal judge from Colorado, emerged from four days of confirmation hearings last week largely unscathed, having deflected Democratic attempts to draw blood.