Senate Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” Thursday to begin clearing a pileup of President Donald Trump’s nominees, paving the way for them to be confirmed in potentially large groups starting next week.
The 53-45 vote to change the rules comes after frustration about the slow pace of confirmations boiled over in the GOP conference following the collapse of bipartisan negotiations over the summer to confirm a package of nominees.
The Senate still needs to finalize the rules change on the floor next week, but Thursday’s vote puts them on track to confirm a slate of 48 Trump nominees as a bloc instead of voting on them individually — a process that would otherwise take months.
“I made it clear that one of my priorities was to get the Senate functioning again, and the Senate can’t function effectively as a legislative body with the confirmation process in the state that it’s in right now,” Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the vote.
Some senators spent hours Thursday trying to find a bipartisan alternative to the party-line move. Those negotiating the agreement believed they were on the precipice of a deal but couldn’t get consent from all 100 senators to move forward with it. Democrats instead suggested talks continue through the weekend, sparking skepticism from some Republicans that they were really willing to make a deal.
“I’m legitimately shocked that we’re like 94 percent of the way there and somebody woke up and said, ‘You know what? Never mind, we’re going to do the thing we were planning on originally,’” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who was involved in the negotiations.
A visibly angry Thune shot back: “How much time is enough? The proposal that we are voting on … has been around for two years.”
Democrats have thrown up procedural roadblocks this week in protest of the GOP’s move to change nominations rules. They blocked quick confirmation of a slate of U.S. attorney nominees. And Republicans sent dozens of nominees who were approved in committee by proxy or voice votes back for reconsideration this week over concerns that Democrats would be able to challenge them on the floor.
Democrats characterized the rules change as only the latest instance of Republicans bending to Trump’s will.
“The story of this Republican majority has been a story of surrender of the Senate’s power over to Donald Trump,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week. “That’s especially true with the nominations process. What’s going on right now with nominations is beyond the pale.”
But Republicans have rebuffed some of Trump’s other nomination demands. They have not thus far allowed for recess appointments, which would let the president leapfrog the Senate entirely. And Republicans quickly rejected Trump’s push for them to set aside the “blue slip,” a precedent that lets senators effectively veto district court and some Justice Department nominees working in their home states.
And even as Democrats have protested the rules change, it’s not expected to grind all of the Senate’s business to a halt. Some Senate Democrats have privately questioned why the chamber spends so much time on nominations, while publicly Schumer and other Democratic senators are vowing to use the rules change against Republicans the next time they hold power.
Republicans said they reached out to Democratic senators earlier in their rules change discussions, but it was never likely there would be a bipartisan agreement given the growing politicization of the nominations process over the past decade.
Democrats got rid of the 60-vote threshold for most nominations in 2013, and Republicans subsequently got rid of the same threshold for the Supreme Court in 2017. Republicans also changed the rules during the first Trump administration to cut down on the amount of debate time required for most executive nominees as well as district court judges.
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