(CNN) Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Senate Republican Conference on Tuesday that he now has the votes to invoke the so-called nuclear option to significantly cut back the debate time on nominations, according to a person with direct knowledge of the remarks. This person also said that McConnell, barring an unforeseen deal with Democrats, plans to move to change Senate rules at some point after next week's congressional recess. Republicans have considered taking the action to speed up a nominations process that has been bogged down by Democratic efforts to maximize the current 30 hours of debate allowed under Senate rules after filibusters are broken. It would follow a 2017 rules change pushed by McConnell that lowered the filibuster threshold for Supreme Court nominees. The rule change would lower the debate time allowed once a filibuster has been defeated from 30 hours to two hours.

Source: CNN March 12, 2019 22:07 UTC