Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday joined a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for the first time in nearly three months, providing a badly needed Democratic vote on some of President Joe Bidens judicial nominees who have stalled during her absence.

Feinstein, who has been out since late February due to a bout of shingles, came to the hearing an hour and a half after it started. Colleagues applauded when the 89-year-old veteran senator arrived as Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) quickly teed up votes on the long-delayed nominees.

Four of Bidens court picks have been stuck in the committee amid Feinsteins prolonged absence. Three were voted out as a result of her being there.

The panel voted 11-10 to advance Charnelle Bjelkengrens nomination to the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Washington. Republicans have been attacking Bjelkengren, a county superior court judge in Washington and former assistant state attorney general, after she blanked on questions about the Constitution in her January confirmation hearing.

Democrats have chalked up Bjelkengrens hiccup to nerves that first-time judicial nominees can experience when testifying before Congress. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came to Thursdays hearing armed with a poster attacking Bjelkengrens credibility and with his trademark performative outrage.

Charnelle Bjelkengren is so amazingly unqualified she may well have the title for the least qualified nominee Ive seen in 11 years serving on this committee, Cruz said.

The Texas Republican glossed over the fact that he routinely voted to confirm Trumps judicial nominees , who earned rare and embarrassing not qualified ratings by the American Bar Association.

Durbin pointed out that Bjelkengren was rated qualified to serve by the American Bar Association. He also highlighted her record of presiding in more than 130 jury and bench trials as a county judge and trying more than 150 cases as assistant state attorney general.

The committee also voted 11-10 to advance Marian Gastons nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Cruz was practically shouting in opposition to Gaston, who has served as a San Diego County superior court judge since 2015 and a deputy public defender in San Diego before that.

The Joe Biden White House is saying [it wants] a radical who wants sex offenders, who wants pedophiles, to be able to live next door to daycares, Cruz said of Gaston. Thats who should be a federal judge.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who recommended Gaston to Biden for a judgeship, ripped Cruz for misconstruing her record. He said Cruz was referring to a paper that Gaston co-authored arguing that children could be made less safe due to unintended consequences of sex offender residency requirements that push sex offenders into homelessness. That paper, he said, made public safety arguments that were backed by local prosecutors and parole and probation groups.

It is patently incorrect to suggest that a position paper that Judge Gaston co-authored 15 years ago argues that sex offender registries do not keep children safe, Padilla said. The paper is being twisted in bad faith. That is not what it said.