Senate conducts hearing for nominees for US Sentencing Commission

Four weeks ago, as discussed here, Prez Biden finally made nominations to the US Sentencing Commission.  Due to a lack of commissioners, the US Sentencing Commission has lacked a quorum needed to fully function for 3.5 years, and the USSC has not had complete set of commissioners firmly in place for nearly decade.  But, now moving relatively swiftly, the US Senate Judiciary Committee today held a confirmation hearing for Prez Biden's seven USSC nominees.

Here is a link to the hearing, which runs about two hours and has a number of interesting elements.  Hard-core federal sentencing fans will likely consider the full hearing worth watching.  For a quick review, FAMM's Shanna Rifkin provided this live tweeting of the hearing, which captures some of the highlights.  And here is a round-up of some press coverage:

From Bloomberg Law, "Sentencing Commission Vetting Echoes GOP Grilling of Jackson"

From Law360, "Senate Panel Considers Long-Awaited Sentencing Noms"

From Reuters, "Biden's sentencing panel noms vow to implement criminal justice reform law"

There was some sharp questioning of a few of the nominees, especially from some GOP Senators, and Senator Josh Hawley seemed to indicate that he would not support at least one of the nominees.  But the overall tenor of the hearing suggested that this slate of nominees had considerable support from the Committee and is on a path to eventual confirmation.

Though this hearing means we are one step closer to having a functional US Sentencing Commission, it is still unclear exactly when there will be a committee vote and then a full Senate vote on these nominees.  I am hopeful these votes might take place this summer, but I should know better than to make any predictions about the pace of work by Congress.