Senate Republicans on Thursday voted 53-45 to allow President Donald Trump’s nominees to be confirmed in groups instead of individually.
They did so by invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” which changes the Senate rules and allows blocks of nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority, instead of the two-thirds threshold required for most actions in the chamber.
“It would have been nice not to have to go through this process,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the floor on Thursday. “I think there are a lot of Democrats who are aware that they created an untenable situation, and it would have been nice to see them acknowledge that and to move to return to longtime Senate precedent.”
He added: “But despite extended efforts to engage Democrats, we still haven’t gotten to a solution to the problem that they created. Time’s about to run out. One way or the other, we’re going to fix this today.”
The vote came after hours of negotiations over a potential bipartisan deal which would’ve built on a Democratic proposal from 2023. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz asked that negotiations wait until Monday to proceed. Republicans overruled, opting to “go nuclear” Thursday.
“Were we to work a weekend to try to land this airplane, that would be beneficial to the country, to the body, to Republicans and Democrats alike. We are actually very close,” Schatz said. “And I don’t know who it is or what the dynamic was, but about an hour ago, everybody just said, ‘Nah. I don’t care how close we are. We’re just gonna do this.’”
Senate Republicans warned for weeks that this change was imminent. Democrats have consistently filibustered Trump’s picks this term, including low-level nominees that in many previous presidencies were confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent.
“We had kind of set a date, and everybody knew it,” Thune told reporters as he was leaving after the votes Thursday. “There were some discussions that happened that looked a little bit promising, but then everything started, ‘Well, we’ve got to have the weekend to talk about it, think about it.’ There’s a time where you have to act. That time was now.”
Prior to August recess, Senate GOP leadership sought to broker a deal with Senate Democrats to speed up the confirmation of a small, agreed-upon batch of nominees. No such deal occurred. Republicans said as a result, they’d change the rules to allow for en bloc consideration of nominees below the Cabinet level.
The actual nominees in question on Thursday still won’t be confirmed until likely next week. The vote on Thursday was merely a motion that paved the way for the group to be considered under one vote, but it stands as a rules change on its own. All Republicans voted in favor of the measure, and all Democrats voted against.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has openly acknowledged Democrats’ unusual level of obstruction on Trump’s nominees. Still, he’s insisted that Trump’s nominees are deserving of the heightened scrutiny, repeatedly calling them “historically bad” picks.
“Thanks to Republicans, we now have podcasters and influencers in senior leadership at the FBI — people like Dan Bongino, someone with zero experience at the agency,” Schumer said on the floor this week. “And if Republicans go nuclear, it’s going to get even worse because nominees will be hidden — there won’t be accountability and there won’t be votes on individual nominees.”
Democrats originally invoked the nuclear option in 2013, when then-Majority Leader Harry Reid removed the 60-vote threshold for executive-level Cabinet positions and most judicial nominees. Republicans, in turn, under then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, removed the threshold for Supreme Court nominees in 2017.
Democrats made a similar proposal to allow for nominees to be considered en bloc when they were last in power under President Joe Biden. The rules change didn’t move forward, but it did in many ways mirror the one Republicans have now passed. And writ large, both parties tend to complain when in power that the nominations process is too slow, too laborious and easily obstructed. Further changes to rules — especially around legislation — have long been resisted by both parties.
Thursday’s rule change could inevitably benefit future presidents, regardless of party, to get their teams in place more quickly. Republicans weeks ahead of the change acknowledged that they could indeed be helping a future Democratic president, but said that couldn’t stop them from acting while they had the chance.
“I think we’re kind of beyond that,” Sen. Josh Hawley told NOTUS last week. “I mean, my Democrat friends, I would just say for the party that thinks that the filibuster is a relic of Jim Crow, this is an extraordinary use of these rules.”
“I mean, zero UCs or voice votes,” Hawley added. “I mean, this is really, really abusive.”
The rules change should noticeably lighten up the Senate schedule, which has been unusually crammed this year. And lawmakers just might need it — considering government funding is set to expire on Sept. 30. Currently, there are no signs of a deal to avoid a shutdown, either, as leaders continue to publicly haggle over negotiations.
Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper told NOTUS Thursday morning that he believes the Senate’s design moves slowly on purpose.
“In certain cases, we do need more speed in government. But I think in something like this where we actually have two hours to look at, you know, ambassadors, think that’s a good thing. I hate to give it up.