Gorsuch vote finally gives GOP Congress a win

The Senate is on track Friday to give the new Republican-led government its first big victory when it confirms Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

After spending weeks on an ill-fated effort to pass a long-promised healthcare bill, Congress will at last able to check off a critical promise made during the campaign by Republicans and President Trump: putting a solid conservative on the bench to replace the late Antonin Scalia.

Gorsuch's confirmation was all but assured on Thursday after the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., invoked the so-called nuclear option to block Democrats from filibustering the nominee. He then ended debate on Gorsuch, which set up a vote Friday evening at the latest, although senators from both parties agreed to finish up the vote around noontime.

"Today, Senate Republicans took a necessary step today to secure the first big win of Donald Trump's presidency," Adam Brandon, president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner on Thursday.

Republican senators, who were poised to vote on the doomed House health care proposal last month and were instead left with a near-empty agenda, were happy their chamber scored the first big victory.