On January 3, 2021, the United States Senate returned the nominations of 37 individuals to the president at the sine die adjournment of the 116th Congress. On the same day, President Donald Trump (R) resubmitted 17 judicial nominations to the Senate.
The list of returned nominations included 22 nominees for the U.S. district courts, three nominees for the Court of Federal Claims, one for the Court of International Trade, one for the United States Tax Court, two for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, one for the District Court of Guam, and seven for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
At the adjournment of the 116th Congress on January 3, seven of the nominees were awaiting a full Senate vote, one was awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 29 were awaiting a committee hearing.
Any renominations are referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee may choose not to hold additional hearings for nominees who already received a hearing in the previous Congress. As such, the renominations are expected to continue in the confirmation process where they left off at the end of the 116th Congress.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed 234 of President Trump’s Article III judicial nominees—174 district court judges, 54 appeals court judges, three Supreme Court justices, and three international trade judges—since January 2017.