patrick.net

Republicans voted on Thursday to change the rules of the Senate in a rare move that will allow them to expedite the confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees.

The party-line vote using the so-called “nuclear option” will enable the Senate to confirm some presidential nominees as groups, rather than individually, with only a simple majority vote.

The maneuver comes as a backlog of almost 150 of Trump Administration nominees awaits floor votes and partisan gridlock has slowed confirmations over the summer, causing discontent among the President and Republican lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune started the process on Monday by introducing 48 of Trump’s nominees to be voted on as a group, including for positions in cabinet departments, the inspector general of the CIA, and ambassadorships. “Democrats have flat-out broken the Senate confirmation process. We are more than seven months into President Trump’s current term, and the Senate has yet to confirm one single civilian nominee by unanimous consent or voice vote,” Thune said on Thursday.

“For two centuries, most presidential nominees have sailed through this chamber by voice vote and by unanimous consent,” said Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber. “That was the gold standard of advice and consent. Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats abandoned it. Instead of deliberation, Senate Democrats chose unprecedented delay. That ends now.”

https://time.com/7316763/nuclear-option-senate-republicans-trump-nominees/