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Senate Republicans united Thursday to change a core Senate function — the way the chamber approves a president's nominees.
This is complicated. But we'll explain it simply.
How do confirmations work now?
More than 1,300 positions in government require Senate confirmation. Each nomination is approved one-by-one on the Senate floor. In past years, the Senate has approved many of these in minutes by quick voice vote, or they have agreed to confirm groups of nominees together.
But this year, in protest of actions by President Donald Trump, Senate Democrats have forced each nomination to go through full Senate procedure, which can take days.
What are Republicans doing here?
Senate Republicans changed the nomination process so that large groups of nominees can be confirmed in a group. How many? An unlimited number.
This will apply only to non-judicial nominees (lower-level for executive branches and agencies as well as ambassadorships). This wouldn't include nominations for Cabinet positions, for example, which have a much longer confirmation process.
This rule change loosely echoes a proposed resolution from Democrats in 2023, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would have allowed the Senate to confirm up to 10 nominations at a time.
At the time, Republicans blocked many of then-President Joe Biden's picks. And now, during Trump's first year back in office, Democrats have forced a full, and slow process for nearly every single one of the president's executive branch nominees. There's a backlog of about 150 nominees.
Calling it "historic obstruction," Thune wrote in a column for Breitbart that the Senate cannot get through all of Trump's needed nominations before the end of his term.
How does this process work?
Thune's proposal has taken a few days. And it is, of course, complicated.
hune filed a list of 48 nominees for confirmation as a bloc early this week. Then, on Thursday, Republicans forced a ruling by the parliamentarian declaring that it is actually against Senate rules to confirm nominees that way. That may seem counterintuitive, but it was a case of setting up the bowling pins in order to knock them down.
Once they had a ruling against passing nominees en masse, Republicans could then vote to overrule the parliamentarian – setting a new precedent and "going nuclear", as the act of changing rules by, essentially, voting to break them. Republicans needed just 50 votes to do things that way, not the two-thirds majority normally required for a rules change.
The big question, does this matter?
This is not as significant as some past uses of the so-called "nuclear option". (Democrats' 2013 rule change to get most judges through with just 50 votes and Republicans' change in 2017 to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees created the courts of today.)
But it does still matter. Here are a few reasons why.
- The most important currency in the U.S. Senate is time. This move gives Republicans back weeks and weeks of time, and increases the chances for a second reconciliation package in the next year.
- This helps Thune fend off a more aggressive threat from Trump, who has toyed with the idea of asking Congress to recess so he could appoint officials without confirmation.
- It is one of few steps toward a more functioning civil servant government.
What happens next?
Next week, likely Wednesday, that first large group of 48 nominees is poised for en masse confirmation.
Here is a nice post with the list, from our friends at Punchbowl. It's worth knowing who is in this first nominee squadron.
All have some bipartisan support. Included are a large number of assistant and deputy secretaries, and a new inspector general for the CIA.
There are a few big names with some plum assignments. Kimberly Guilfoyle, former adviser to the Trump campaign and ex-girlfriend to Donald Trump Jr., who is poised to become ambassador to Greece; and Callista Gingrich, wife to former speaker Newt Gingrich, who is nominated to serve simultaneously as ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
All have been waiting weeks, and many months, to start their jobs — and now, expect the green light in days.
Editor's note: This story was updated after the Sept. 11 Senate vote on the rule change.