Sessions: No date set for Sotomayor hearings

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave a dour report Wednesday on progress towards a confirmation hearing schedule for Supreme Court nominee Sonia
Sotomayor, saying there is too little information.

Sessions met with committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday morning to discuss a hearing schedule, but no decision was reached. Sessions noted that Sotomayor still has to complete a
questionnaire for the Judiciary Committee and the FBI has not yet finished its investigation into her.

“One of the problems is that we don’t have enough information,” Sessions told The Hill. “We haven’t seen her questionnaire back, and the FBI hasn’t completed its work… These are things that just point
out that we’re not ripe for making any decisions right now.”

There is no deadline for Sotomayor to complete the Judiciary Committee questionnaire, said a committee aide.

The Obama administration is pushing for a confirmation vote by the start of the congressional recess in August, but GOP senators have protested they want more time. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on
Tuesday declined to agree to any “arbitrary deadline.”

– J. Taylor Rushing