The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced President Donald Trump’s nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorney positions for Mississippi, after the nominations had been held up by a North Carolina senator over a dispute over federal recognition of an indigenous group as a tribe.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis had recently said he was blocking a committee vote on the four Mississippi nominations over negotiations with Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi on the Lumbee people being officially recognized as a Native American tribe. Wicker is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has sway over legislation in which proponents wanted the Lumbee recognized.

The nominations now advance to the full Senate.

Wicker in a statement on Thursday said he’s pleased the nominations moved forward and that he looks forward to voting for their confirmations on the Senate floor. He has declined comment on the issue with Tillis and the holdup of the nominations.

“Justices Chamberlin and Maxwell and Messrs. Kruger and Leary are highly qualified individuals,” Wicker said. “They will uphold the law, defend the Constitution and serve Mississippi well.”

The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed this effort.

Language granting federal recognition of the tribe had been added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending bill, but was not included in the Senate’s version, which Wicker oversees.

Earlier this month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on the Lumbee Fairness Act, legislation now being pushed by Tillis and other North Carolina lawmakers. President Trump has also endorsed recognition of the Lumbee as a tribe.

In a recent press release Tillis said: “This issue has come before Congress many times over the decades, but never with this level of unity and support. These days, it’s rare to see Republicans and Democrats come together on anything. But when it comes to Lumbee recognition, the support is overwhelming and it’s bipartisan … Here in the Senate, nearly two dozen members from both parties have co-sponsored the Lumbee Fairness Act…”