[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 132 (Thursday, July 31, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4956-S4957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Government Funding
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, appropriations season is well underway. The
Senate Appropriations Committee has, so far, passed six bipartisan
appropriations bills, and the Republicans are ready to consider a
package of appropriations bills and have a floor process, one that
involves serious amendments from both sides of the aisle, amendments
designed to improve the bills, not score political points or sink the
bills with poison pill measures. And there have been some encouraging
signs that some of my Democrat colleagues are ready to come to the
table on this. And I hope that will prove to be true and we will be
able to finish an appropriations package in the coming days and then
work with the House in August to get the legislation ready to send to
the President.
We are going to have a lot more appropriations work to do in
September, and I will continue to push for a regular order process with
debate and amendment on the Senate floor, and, hopefully, my Democrat
colleagues will support that effort.
It is in the interest of both parties to have a regular-order,
bipartisan process, and at least some Democrats have acknowledged as
much. It would be nice to see that attitude prevail in the Democrat
Party, generally.
I will say, it was disturbing to see the Democrat leader threaten to
shut down the government a few weeks ago, and I hope--I really hope--
the Democrats will not embrace that position.
In addition to moving forward on an appropriations package, the other
thing we need to get done in short order is a package of nominations.
Now, while Senate Republicans have made excellent progress on
confirming nominees, we could be a lot further along if Democrats
hadn't, so far, decided to slow-walk every single civilian nomination
from the President.
I don't need to tell anyone here that it is usual for Presidents to
get a percentage of their nominees confirmed quickly here in the Senate
by either unanimous consent or voice vote. That has been the practice
for decades.
By this point in his Presidency, Joe Biden had had 121 civilian
nominees confirmed, and 49 of them had been confirmed by voice vote or
unanimous consent--49, or a full 40 percent.
Do you want to know how many civilian nominees President Trump has
had confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote? None. Zero. Zero
percent.
Now, I think it is important. I have got a chart here just for
purposes of informing people about what this looks like as I mentioned
over the past several decades.
If you start with President H. W. Bush, 41, 98 percent of his
nominees to positions in the Federal Government were confirmed by
either unanimous consent or voice vote. In other words, basically, the
recognition was that these are people that need to be in these
positions. There are important jobs that need to be filled in our
government so people can carry out the responsibilities and duties on
behalf of our country, and 98 percent of the nominees were confirmed
either by unanimous consent or voice in his first term.
So let's go back to a Democrat President, Bill Clinton. Same thing,
98 percent of President Bill Clinton's nominees were confirmed either
by unanimous consent or by voice vote; in other words, both sides
agreeing, in a bipartisan way, that it is important to have positions
in our government filled. So that is Bill Clinton, Democrat President.
Then we have George W. Bush, 43. Ninety percent of his nominees were
confirmed either by voice or unanimous consent--90 percent.
Then you get another Democrat President, Barack Obama, 90 percent of
his nominees were confirmed either by voice or unanimous consent--90
percent, meaning that pretty much everybody here on both sides of the
aisle recognized that there are important positions in our government
that need to be filled, most of which, at least many of which--like
they are today--are bipartisan when they come out of committee.
Then we move into President Trump's first term. That number dropped
down to 65.
And then, of course, the Biden administration, Republicans also
started to say: Well, if the Dems are going to do it, we will too. The
number dropped down to 57. But it is still important to point out that
even in the last Democrat Presidency with Joe Biden, 57 percent--57
percent--of his nominees to positions within the Federal Government
were confirmed either by unanimous consent or voice vote here in the
U.S. Senate.
And then you look at the current President, President Trump, second
term, zero. This isn't sustainable. We can't keep on this track. This
has got to change, and it will change. Either Democrats are going to
play ball or we are going to figure out a way to change it. We can't
have a Federal Government--by the way, there are 1,100 executive branch
nominations--which, in my view, is way too many to start with that have
to come through the Senate for confirmation--1,100 of them. Many of
whom, at this rate, aren't going to get their jobs before President
Trump leaves office.
You just can't do this. This isn't a sustainable practice. So
something is going to give. The Democrats are going to start to play
ball and do what every other Congress, Republican and Democrat, with
every other President, Republican and Democrat, has done when it comes
to allowing the President--who won an election fair and square and tens
of millions of people voted for him--to be able to put his people into
their respective offices so they can do the job for the American people
and he can do the job the American people voted for him to do.
So I am just going to say one more time: Zero. Zero. In as recently
as the last Presidential administration, Democrat President Joe Biden,
57 percent were confirmed by unanimous consent.
So let me just say there are important jobs in the government that
are currently standing empty 8 months now into this President's term
because Democrats have dragged out the confirmation process and denied
President Trump the courtesy that Republicans and Democrats alike in
the past have extended to previous Presidents.
Now, I will say that I do think there are at least some of my
colleagues, Democrats on the other side of the aisle, who would like to
maintain the kind of courtesy on nominations that prevailed in the
Senate before this year. And I am hoping, really hoping, that those
more pragmatic Democrats will prevail and pave the way for us to work
together for the next few days to approve a nominations package.
We have a lot of bipartisan nominees who are available for
consideration right now, and we should be able to quickly approve their
nominations. And, again, I hope that my Democrat colleagues will come
to the table.
Otherwise, we are going to be spending a whole lot more time here on
the Senate floor.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
[[Page S4957]]
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Curtis). Without objection, it is so
ordered.