The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold confirmation hearings on Jan. 10 and 11 on Sen. Jeff Sessions’s nomination to be the attorney general, the panel announced.
“Since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s nomination of Herbert Brownell to be the 62nd Attorney General in 1953, hearings on a newly-elected president’s Attorney General nominee have been held prior to inauguration,” the Judiciary Committee stated in a post Friday on its website.
“The only exception occurred when President George H.W. Bush retained Dick Thornburgh as Attorney General after he had been confirmed only five months prior under President Ronald Reagan.”
Sessions’s confirmation process will follow the “same timeline as the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder” under President Obama, the post stated.
The senator was Trump’s first supporter in the upper chamber.
The announcement that Sessions was Trump’s pick for attorney general was met with praise from Republicans and criticism from civil rights groups, which noted that Sessions has been dogged by accusations of racism throughout his career.
Senate leaders are hoping to schedule more confirmation hearings before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.