WASHINGTON — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has until 4 p.m. Wednesday to appease two GOP holdout senators and unlock a key vote scheduled for Thursday morning that would bring him a step closer to heading the Justice Department permanently.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he is waiting for Blanche and the DOJ to nail down modifications to a controversial DOJ settlement that created a $1.8 billion “weaponization” compensation fund. Cornyn said he was supposed to meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning, but the meeting didn’t happen.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is still currently scheduled to vote on Blanche’s nomination Thursday morning. Cornyn said Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, gave him until 4 p.m. Eastern time to work out a deal, otherwise they would have to postpone the vote.

“We’re trying to help them get to a conclusion here, and they won’t let us. It’s befuddling to me,” Cornyn said of DOJ.

The settlement announced in May was brokered by Blanche, who is currently overseeing the Justice Department as acting attorney general. Although Blanche told Cornyn at his confirmation hearing that the fund was “dead,” Cornyn wanted greater assurances on its scope.

The so-called “anti-weaponization” fund was created as part of settling President Donald Trump’s $10 billion suit against the Internal Revenue Service tied to the release of his tax returns during his first term in office. Its terms also immunize Trump and his family from tax audits.

Cornyn said he wanted modifications to the fund in writing but DOJ has not been “responsive.” He said he specifically wanted DOJ to clarify the scope of the settlement’s tax audit immunity, including the extent to which plaintiffs would be protected by federal agencies other than the IRS or Treasury Department.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who shared Cornyn’s concerns about the fund, was also not a guaranteed vote for Blanche. Tillis said Wednesday that Cornyn is not “walking away from it” but rather being “realistic about planning a markup.”

Tillis said he’s relying on Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general, to give him “the technical interpretation.”

“I don’t think there’s a game being played here. I think that Blanche genuinely wants to get it done because he recognizes it as the distraction that it is,” Tillis said. “It may mean that he’s got to go through and tell the boss or somebody else to sign off on it. But none of this is secret.”

Tillis is retiring at the end of this term. Cornyn, who ran for reelection but lost in a bitter primary battle after Trump endorsed his opponent Ken Paxton over him, is also not returning to Congress next year.

Tillis added that Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who sits on the committee, is currently out of Washington to attend funeral services for her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, which could further complicate the math.

Cornyn and Tillis hold considerable sway on the committee since Republicans can afford to lose only one GOP senator if all Democrats vote against Blanche.

“I wouldn’t read any sort of ultimatum — Senator Cornyn is not that sort of person anyway,” Tillis said. “You probably get that from me, but not him.” It’s more of a practical matter, he added.

Blanche was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and met with at least one GOP senator who does not sit on the Judiciary Committee: John Curtis of Utah. Blanche did not answer questions about the meeting when he departed.

The committee vote is not completely make-or-break for Blanche. Without a favorable report, a confirmation vote on the floor could still go ahead, but it would require more procedural steps.

And experts say he could remain as acting attorney general for many months, if not longer, depending on the consent of Senate Republican leadership and the interpretation of federal statute.

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(Nina Heller contributed to this report.)

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