âť“WHAT HAPPENED: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will move to alter Senate rules this week to allow President Donald J. Trump’s political appointees to be confirmed in large batches to circumvent unprecedented Democratic obstructionism.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, President Donald Trump, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
đź“ŤWHEN & WHERE: The U.S. Senate, ongoing through the Trump administration, with procedural changes proposed this week.
đź’¬KEY QUOTE: “When the Senate convenes this week, I will begin the necessary procedural steps to reform the Senate’s rules. No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now, in a way that has never been done before.” – John Thune
🎯IMPACT: Hundreds of vacancies remain in federal agencies, delaying the implementation of the administration’s agenda and consuming valuable Senate time. The rule change could help to quickly clear the backlog of nominees.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) announced on Monday that he intends to amend the Senate rules to clear the backlog of President Donald J. Trump‘s political appointments and end Democratic Party obstructionism aimed at preventing the America First leader from executing his electoral mandate. According to Senator Thune, nominees to serve in the Trump administration will now be considered in large batches, instead of individually. The South Dakota Republican notes that, unlike under any prior President, Democrats have prevented simple voice votes and forced lengthy up-or-down votes on each individual Trump appointee.
“When the Senate convenes this week, I will begin the necessary procedural steps to reform the Senate’s rules. No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now, in a way that has never been done before,” Thune wrote on Monday. He continued: “This total obstruction simply cannot be the standard moving forward—both in principle and in practicality. We must return to the Senate’s traditional confirmation process that existed before this unprecedented blockade.”
The Democratic Party’s obstructionism has forced the Senate, Leader Thune says, to have “taken more votes than any Senate has at this point in more than 35 years. We’ve taken more roll call votes in eight months than most Senates take in 12.” Notably, while Congress usually vacates Washington, D.C. in the summer, the Senate remained in session into August to continue appointee confirmations.
“We’ve also spent more hours in session through August than any Senate in more than 15 years. All that to be slightly behind pace of the last two administrations’ confirmation rates,” Thune notes.
Shockingly, the Senate Majority Leader revealed that if the upper legislative chamber does not move to confirm nominees in batches, the Democratic Party’s obstructionism would require “than 600 additional roll call votes to clear the nominees who are currently in the pipeline.” Additionally, Thune contends that without batch confirmations, there would likely be hundreds of vacancies for appointed positions by the time President Trump’s term of office ends.
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