[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 79 (Monday, May 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S2848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on Thursday afternoon, Democrats abruptly 
ended extensive bipartisan work on the GENIUS Act and filibustered the 
Senate's attempt to move this bill. Democrats, I should say, who had 
voted for the bill in committee, inexplicably chose to vote against it 
here on the Senate floor. That is pretty difficult to understand.
  Providing a regulatory framework for stablecoins is a bipartisan 
issue. The bill is the product of a bipartisan negotiation, and the 
vote in the Banking Committee was definitely bipartisan--which leads 
you to wonder, of course, if this was really about the bill at all or 
if this was about wanting to deny President Trump or Republicans, more 
generally, a legislative victory, which might be nice for Democrats but 
leaves stablecoin issuers and Americans who use stablecoins in the same 
difficult spot that they are currently in. But unfortunately, it is 
pretty clear that obstructing, not legislating, is the Democrats' 
priority right now.
  Until Democrats come to their senses and allow us to proceed to the 
GENIUS Act, we are going to turn to nominations, another area where, 
unfortunately, Democrats have made obstruction the name of the game. I 
certainly understand that Democrats are not going to support all the 
President's nominees; that is their prerogative as Senators. But the 
way that they are drawing out this process on even noncontroversial 
nominations is serving no one.
  Mr. President, 57 out of 58 of the President's civilian nominees have 
required cloture votes, an unprecedented number for recent 
administrations; and of those 57 nominees, 17 received 60 or more votes 
in support on their final confirmation vote--in other words, support 
from a number of Democrats as well as Republicans. And yet Democrats 
dragged out those nominations in the same way they dragged out the 
nominations of individuals that they universally opposed.
  Not a single one of President Trump's civilian nominees has been 
confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote--again, something entirely 
unprecedented in recent years. No other President since at least 1977 
has failed to have civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or 
a voice vote at this point of his administration, except for President 
Trump in his first term in office.
  And as I said, this is serving no one, nor is this going to prevent 
the President's nominees from getting confirmed. Democrats can drag out 
nominations all they want, but we are going to fill out the President's 
administration and ensure that his nominees get into place so that they 
can do their job and that he can do the job that he was elected to do.
  I would like to do this the easy way and confirm noncontroversial 
nominees expeditiously--in batches, for example, and maybe even by 
unanimous consent. That would give us more time to legislate and give 
Members more time to spend in their States. But if we have to do this 
the hard way, we will. We are going to get the President's team in 
place.
  So I guess Democrats have some decisions to make. I hope--I really 
hope--that they will come back to the table on the GENIUS Act, and I 
hope that they will cease their pointless obstruction of bipartisan 
nominees, but I guess we will have to see.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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