(CNN) Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham has officially laid the groundwork for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to get approved by his GOP-led panel in 10 days, setting the stage for one of the quickest confirmation proceedings for a Supreme Court nominee in modern times -- all before she's taken a question from a senator.
Soon after senators and Barrett finished delivering their opening statements on her first day of hearings on Monday, Graham set up a key business meeting for Thursday to consider the nomination for a vote.
At that Thursday meeting, which will occur after two days of questioning from senators, the committee will officially schedule a vote on the nomination for October 22.
Graham and his GOP colleagues got a boost because two of the senators who had tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month -- Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah -- are expected to attend the Thursday session, along with GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who was quarantining as a safety precaution. That means Republicans will have enough members Thursday to officially have a quorum and eventually send the nomination to the full Senate next week.
Senate GOP leaders are eyeing October 29 for the chamber to approve Barrett's nomination -- meaning she would be confirmed to a lifetime appointment to the high court barely a month after she was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the seat of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
At the moment, it appears, the only thing that could stop the nomination is if more GOP senators test positive for Covid-19 and can't attend the committee session or the floor vote. Tillis, an aide said, is expected to be back in the Senate on Tuesday, but his office would not say whether he has tested negative for the virus.
Lee produced a doctor's letter saying he had been cleared to return, as he did Monday, while GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin -- who is not on the committee but also tested positive this month -- has said he will show up to vote no matter what, even if he has to dress in a "moon suit."
Democrats have demanded that all members get tested for Covid-19 before they appear in committee or on the floor, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected the demand as the Kentucky Republican leads the charge to fill the seat and cement a conservative majority on the court potentially for decades to come.
Democrats -- livid after Republicans held open the Supreme Court seat that then-President Barack Obama tried to fill in 2016, arguing it was too close to an election in March of that year -- accused the GOP of blatant hypocrisy and an untoward power grab.
"Chairman Graham's announcement that he will hold Judge Barrett's first committee markup on Thursday morning, before we've even finished her hearing, is unprecedented in my time on the committee," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the veteran California Democrat who serves as ranking committee member. "It's another example of Republicans ignoring rules and tradition so they can rush this nominee through before the election -- and in time to supply a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act."
Graham, who previously opposed approving nominees in a presidential election year, argued that 2016 was a different situation because the same party now controls both the White House and the Senate, unlike when Obama was President.
"A president serves for four years -- not three," Graham said Monday.