Democrats ground the Senate to a halt on Wednesday, forcing Republicans to abruptly end or postpone committee hearings in protest of President Donald Trump's controversial decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.



On Wednesday morning, Minority Whip Dick Durbin — the number-two Senate Democrat — said that the Senate is currently facing an important "constitutional question" and made the unusual move of preventing the Senate from holding committee hearings, where senators research and debate bills, and conduct oversight of federal agencies.

Durbin cited Comey's firing when he objected to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's request to allow 13 committees to meet Wednesday.

Ben Marter, a spokesperson for Durbin, said the senator employed what's called the two-hour rule, a delay tactic used infrequently by both parties to prevent committees from meeting two hours after the Senate convenes for the day. On Wednesday, the Senate convened at 9:30 a.m., meaning committee meetings after 11:30 a.m. were postponed and those that had already started were forced to adjourn.



That included hearings on law enforcement's difficulties obtaining data stored overseas, the Endangered Species Act, judicial nominations, veteran health care, and seniors.

"This is not a business as usual day with a constitutional crisis on our hands," Marter said, adding that halting committee hearings would focus the Senate's attention on the Comey issue.

Republicans were furious. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, whose Aging committee was supposed to meet Wednesday for a hearing on the "impact of isolation and loneliness on the health and well-being" of seniors, said the Democratic tactic "makes no sense whatsoever."



"This is an example of the dysfunction of the Senate," Collins said on the Senate floor. "How does it make sense that the Aging committee, which operates in a completely bipartisan manner, is being prohibited from holding a hearing that is important to our seniors and that has nothing to do with the issues that are in the news today?"

Montana Sen. Steve Daines said on the Senate floor that Democrats weren’t thinking about the witnesses that had flown to Washington on their own dime to testify before the committees on Wednesday. One witness from Montana “spent over $1,000 on a flight. He spent almost $600 on hotel accommodations, not to mention the cost of other incidentals,” Daines said, to tell senators about the “unacceptably unclean tap water” in his home state.