Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to the media following a Senate coverage luncheon on the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Senate Republicans have voted to alter the chamber’s guidelines with a purpose to velocity affirmation of President Trump’s nominees.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
Senate Republicans have voted to alter the foundations to make it simpler to verify President Trump’s nominees, permitting the chamber to verify sure nominees in teams fairly than by particular person vote.
The vote Thursday comes after months of Republican lawmakers criticizing their Democratic counterparts for dragging out the affirmation course of, one of many few parts of energy the minority occasion has in GOP-unified authorities.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., started the foundations change course of this week, which might enable the chamber to think about non-cabinet degree govt department nominees in batches. The senate is predicted to finalize the foundations change subsequent week.
“It is time to take steps to revive Senate precedent and codify in Senate guidelines what as soon as was understood to be commonplace observe, and that’s the Senate performing expeditiously on presidential nominations to permit a president to get his staff into place,” Thune mentioned.
The change applies to sub-Cupboard, ambassador and govt department nominees. It doesn’t apply to judicial nominees.
Over one thousand positions require Senate affirmation, an often-onerous and prolonged course of. In keeping with the Heart on Presidential Transition, the common time to verify a president’s nominee has almost quadrupled from a median of 49 days to 193 days over the past six presidential administrations.
Within the Senate, a single senator can delay a nominee’s affirmation.
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been vocal in opposing the foundations change.
“Make no mistake, this transfer by Republicans was not a lot about ending obstruction as they declare—fairly it was one other act of genuflection to the chief department,” Schumer mentioned Monday.
After the vote, Senate Republicans used the rule to advance a package deal of 48 nominees, which is able to seemingly be confirmed subsequent week.
This isn’t the primary time the chamber has used the nuclear possibility. In 2013, Democrats removed the 60-vote threshold for many nominations. Republicans adopted swimsuit in 2017 to increase the change to Supreme Courtroom nominees. They modified the foundations once more through the first Trump administration to restrict debate time for some nominees.
