Democrats are currently speaking in opposition to Betsy DeVos on the floor of Senate, and they plan to continue doing so for 24 straight hours.
This comes in the hours before the Senate votes on whether to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next Education secretary of the United States. That vote is currently scheduled to take place at noon on Tuesday.
The event on Monday isn’t actually a filibuster. Instead, it’s more of a dramatic series of speeches meant to get attention and meant to convince just one Senate Republican to vote against DeVos tomorrow. Every Senate Democrat is expected to oppose DeVos’ nomination, as are two Republicans: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
As it stands, the vote will be 50-50, and Mike Pence will break the tie in favor of DeVos. But if just a single Republican Senator can be convinced to vote against DeVos in the next 24 hours, her nomination will fail.
“Now is the time to put country before party,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the Senate today.
The Trump administration appears to be very confident that no other Republicans will vote against Betsy DeVos and that she will be approved tomorrow.