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Senate GOP Could Use Procedural Tactics To Delay Sotomayor Hearings

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday said that the GOP has not ruled out the use of procedural tactics, such as a Republican boycott, to attempt to delay Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Roll Call reports. Republicans have complained that the scheduled July 13 start date for the hearing does not give them enough time to review Sotomayor"s record. Kyl said that Republicans will try to negotiate with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for more time if they feel they cannot meet the July 13 deadline (Stanton, Roll Call, 6/11). Leahy said that Sotomayor is entitled to be confirmed on the same timetable as Chief Justice John Roberts, who appeared before the Judiciary Committee less than two months after his nomination (Kivlan, CongressDaily, 6/11).Republican Senate aides say Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is not likely to make a final decision for several weeks on whether the GOP will try to delay the nomination. According to Roll Call, Sessions has sought to approach the issue "in a careful, measured way," though he has been critical of some of Sotomayor"s public statements. Roll Call reports that Republicans are apt to display an impartial stance on Sotomayor until the hearing starts, meaning that they likely will delay a decision on whether to stall the nomination until the last minute (Roll Call, 6/11).Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Republican senators are stalling to give conservative groups more time to organize a campaign against Sotomayor that they hope will taint her nomination. Feinstein said that there are "groups out there who need more time for attacks and sound bites." She added, "This is a woman who is qualified, who is brilliant, and who worked her way up" (CongressDaily, 6/11).

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative And Crucell Announce Collaboration To Test New Adenovirus-based Malaria Vaccine Approach

The US-based PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP), and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. (Euronext, Nasdaq: CRXL; Swiss Exchange: CRX) today announced a collaboration to accelerate development of a promising type of malaria vaccine. Through funding from the USAID MVDP, the partners will conduct studies to determine the effectiveness of Crucell"s novel prime-boost vaccine approach against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. This approach uses Crucell"s proprietary recombinant adenoviruses (a type of virus associated with the common cold and other mild respiratory infections) to deliver a malaria antigen to the immune system.