Vice President-elect JD Vance will return to Capitol Hill on Thursday -- this time accompanying President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, to meetings with senators, per a source familiar with the plans.

The visit comes after Vance accompanied Trump's pick for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, to meetings with Republican senators on Wednesday.

Just as Gaetz did, Hegseth is expected to meet with GOP senators in hopes of helping his nomination process.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Vice President-elect JD Vance and former Rep. Matt Gaetz met with GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, another member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

The meeting comes amid Gaetz's nomination for attorney general and the House Ethics Committee being deadlocked on whether to release its report on him.

"I think it was a productive conversation," Cruz told reporters. "I believe every one of the president's nominees deserves a full and fair hearing and a swift confirmation process, and I hope and expect that's exactly what the Senate will provide," Cruz said.

"I think there will be a full and fair confirmation process," he added.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

President-elect Donald Trump has announced he's nominating former congressman Peter Hoekstra to be the United States ambassador to Canada.

The role requires Senate confirmation for approval.

Most recently, Hoekstra served as chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. He previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term.

"Pete is well-respected in the Great State of Michigan - A State we won sizably," Trump wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

"In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST. He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role," Trump added.

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

In a fiery floor speech on Wednesday, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis took his GOP colleagues to task for missing votes on Monday that he said could have helped Republicans block the Democratic effort to install lame-duck lifetime judiciary appointments.

Trump has made clear he wants Republicans to make every effort to block Democrats from advancing judicial nominations.

The Senate is again expected to be in quite late Wednesday evening trying to process judicial nominations, a process necessary because Republicans are objecting to placing votes on these nominees on the Senate calendar.

Republicans will be powerless to stop this if all Democrats show up to vote, as Democrats have the majority necessary to move nominees through. But there were enough Democratic absences on Monday that a full Republican showing could have defeated some of the nominations.

Tillis didn't mince words on the Senate floor Wednesday as he called out his colleagues for missing votes.

"I think the American people are on board with me: We have to show up for work, right?" he said.

"We've got work to do here and I understand there are all kinds of good reasons but there's no excuse to let Chuck Schumer force these judicial nominations down our throat," Tillis said. "We've got to show up for work."

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin