[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 146 (Monday, September 8, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6391-S6392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Rules Change
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President:
For decades, Democrats and Republicans have regularly
cooperated to swiftly confirm the many, many individuals
selected by each President to serve in their administration.
Regardless of the party in the White House, both sides have
long agreed that a President deserves to have his or her
administration in place, quickly. That doesn't mean we don't
disagree. But it does mean, when nominees are held up,
opposed, or blocked--it's for a legitimate purpose, not for
leverage in partisan games, to score political points at the
expense of public safety.
Let me just repeat that.
That doesn't mean we don't disagree. But it does mean, when
nominees are held up, opposed, or blocked--it's for a
legitimate purpose, not for leverage in partisan games, to
score political points at the expense of public safety.
Now, none of those words are original to me. So far, I have simply
been quoting the Democrat leader from back in 2022. But his words
perfectly summarized the longstanding tradition of the Senate--a
tradition that Democrats have destroyed this year.
As the Democrat leader correctly stated, ``For decades, Democrats and
Republicans have regularly cooperated to swiftly confirm the many, many
individuals selected by each President to serve in their
administration.''
Now, on a practical level, that has looked like expediting individual
nominees and blocks of nominees by using unanimous consent or voice
vote, which is a way, as the Acting President pro tempore knows here in
the Senate, of moving things along more quickly.
During President George H. W. Bush's 4 years in office and President
Clinton's first 4 years, both Presidents had 98 percent of their
civilian nominees--get this: 98 percent--confirmed through unanimous
consent or voice vote. George W. Bush--President Bush--and President
Obama both had 90 percent of their nominees confirmed by unanimous
consent or voice vote in their first terms.
Then we get to President Trump's first administration. Democrats,
upset at the President's election, introduced an unprecedented new
level of partisanship into the historically bipartisan confirmation
process, forcing time-consuming votes on civilian nominees who would
once have gone by unanimous consent or by voice vote.
But even so, despite this new level of partisanship introduced by
Democrats, both President Trump in his first term and President Biden
had more than
[[Page S6392]]
half of their nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.
Well, fast-forward to today. President Trump has been in office for 8
months, and he has not had one single civilian nominee confirmed by
unanimous consent or voice vote--not one. Democrats have dragged out
the process of every single nominee, even on nominees they ended up
voting for by large margins. It is Trump derangement syndrome on
steroids. That is right--Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.
If this were a matter of historically bad nominees, as the Democrat
leader tried to claim, the Democrats wouldn't be voting for a number of
these nominees in committee or supporting them on final passage. No,
this isn't about the quality of the candidates or any other substantive
issue; this is simply the world's longest, most drawn-out temper
tantrum over losing an election. Democrats can't stand the fact that
President Trump was elected, and so they have destroyed decades upon
decades of Senate precedent and turned a historically bipartisan
process into an exercise in petty partisanship--an exercise in petty
partisanship that is doing a profound disservice to the American people
because, of course, Democrats' actions have consequences.
First and foremost, those consequences are delays in filling
essential positions throughout the administration--in our government,
the people's government. Empty desks do not help the government
function, and unnecessary delays rob a duly elected President of the
team he needs to carry out his responsibilities.
Dragging out confirmations also ties up the Senate floor. As the
senior Senator from Minnesota said last year in what I would say were
much less dire confirmation circumstances, ``As the Senate spends more
of its time working on nominations, this leaves less time for
legislating on issues that are important to the American people.''
Well, thanks to Democrats' historic obstruction, that is even more true
today. We are, in fact, as the senior Democrat from Minnesota said, at
risk of becoming a ``full-time employment agency.''
This situation has become unsustainable. To clear the current backlog
of nominees on the calendar and in committee, we would need to take
another 600 votes before the end of the year. Now, let me just repeat
that to put it into context. To clear the current backlog of nominees
on the calendar and in committee, we would need to take another 600
votes. To put that number in perspective, that is more votes than this
recordbreaking Senate has taken all year up until now. Again, that is
just for nominations that have already been sent to Congress, not those
that are going to be forwarded and that we are going to have to process
additionally, on top of the 600 votes, between now and the end of the
year. There literally are hundreds more nominations to come from the
administration.
So if Democrats' obstruction continues, as Democrats have made
abundantly clear that it will, there is no practical way that we can
come close to filling all the vacancies in the 4 years of this
administration no matter how many hours the Senate works.
So we have a crisis, and it is time to take steps to restore Senate
precedent and codify in Senate rules what once was understood to be
standard practice, and that is the Senate's acting expeditiously on
Presidential nominations to allow a President to get his team into
place. So this afternoon, I will be taking the necessary procedural
steps to amend the rules. It is an idea, as I said earlier, with a
Democrat pedigree. The senior Democrat Senator from Minnesota, along
with her colleague in the Democratic caucus, the junior Senator from
Maine, made a similar proposal in 2023, which would have codified in
Senate rules the longtime Senate precedent of en bloc nominations, of
moving nominations in groups.
Our measure is not as extensive as that of my Democrat colleagues. It
only applies to nominees at the sub-Cabinet level and not to article
III judicial nominees, as theirs did. But the proposals share the same
objective, and that is providing for confirming groups of nominees
altogether so the President can have his team in place and so the
Senate can focus on the important legislative work in its charge or, to
quote the senior Democrat from Minnesota on her very similar proposal,
``This commonsense reform will help improve efficiency and make sure
we're able to fill positions that are vital to our national security,
economic success, and more.''
Eight months of petty partisanship is long enough. This Senate has
cast more votes up to this point than any Senate going back to the
1980s. We have been in more hours than any Senate going back a couple
of decades.
This historic obstruction ends now. Democrats have destroyed Senate
precedent, and we are going to fix it--fix it and ensure that in the
future, duly elected Presidents of both parties are able to get their
teams in place without unnecessary delay so that they can fulfill their
responsibilities to the American people.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.