Thune says Senate will change the rules to push through Trump’s blocked nominees

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Republicans are ready to change the chamber’s rules to allow quick confirmations of dozens of President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees, moving to speed up votes after months of Democratic delays.

Thune said Monday that he’ll start the process of changing the rules this week, with a final vote likely coming as soon as next week. Opening the Senate, Thune said Democrats’ obstruction of nominees is unsustainable.

If the delays continue, Thune said, “there is no practical way that we could come close to filling all the vacancies in the four years of this administration no matter how many hours the Senate works.”

Republicans have been talking about options for changing the rules since early August, when the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan negotiations over the confirmation process. Democrats have blocked nearly every single one of Trump’s nominees, forcing majority Republicans to spend valuable floor time on procedural votes and leaving many positions in the executive branch unfilled.

The changes come after both parties have escalated their obstruction of the other party’s nominees for years, and as leaders in both parties have incrementally changed the rules to make the process less bipartisan. The proposal to group nominations is loosely based on legislation introduced by Democrats two years ago as Republicans blocked many of then-President Joe Biden’s picks.

But while Senate Republicans forced similar delays during Biden’s administration, Democrats have blocked almost all of Trump’s nominations. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.

Thune called it a drawn out “temper tantrum” by Democrats over Trump’s election.

“It’s time to take steps to restore Senate precedent and codify in the Senate rules what was once understood to be standard practice, and that is the Senate acting expeditiously on presidential nominations to allow a president to get his team into place.”

The delays have infuriated Trump, who told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” in a social media post after negotiations broke down over the process in early August.

Republicans are still working on some of the details of the rules change, but Thune said the Republican proposal to be voted on in the coming days or weeks would allow the Senate to vote on “groups of nominees all together.” It would only apply to executive branch nominations, not lifetime judicial appointments, and would exclude the most high-profile positions, such as Cabinet nominees, that require a longer debate time.

Currently, one senator’s objection can force days of votes on a single nominee.

If Republicans act quickly, they could confirm more than 100 of Trump’s pending nominations this month. The process to change the rules will likely require several floor votes and the support of a simple majority, so at least 51 out of the chamber’s 53 Republicans. But most GOP senators appear to be on board.

The change will be the latest salvo in years of intensifying standoffs over presidential nominations. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Democrats have said the rules change would be a mistake, especially as Senate Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass spending bills and other legislation moving forward.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that Republicans’ proposed plan “guts the Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent, weakens our checks and balances, and guarantees that historically bad nominees will only get worse with even less oversight.”