Senate Republicans are teeing up four dozen sub-Cabinet nominees for confirmation next week as they move toward invoking the so-called “nuclear option” to change the chamber’s rules.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first procedural step Monday night as part of Republicans’ effort to topple Democrats’ unprecedented blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Thune filed an executive resolution that lists the first 48 nominees he wants to confirm in a bloc. This is the vehicle Republicans are using to change the Senate’s rules to allow an unlimited number of sub-Cabinet nominees to be grouped together for one confirmation vote.
The list. The nominees listed in the resolution span several departments and agencies. But they all have one thing in common: They were approved with bipartisan support in committee.
Four of them are for foreign ambassadorships, including Callista Gingrich, nominated for U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Greece.
The list also includes former Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), Trump’s pick for under secretary for nuclear security at the Energy Department.
Next steps. The Senate will vote to invoke cloture on Thune’s resolution on Thursday at a 60-vote threshold. This will fail, so Republicans will then vote to overrule the chair in order to lower the threshold to a simple majority.
That would put the Senate on track to pass the resolution on Monday, allowing Thune to tee up all 48 nominations as a single bloc. This sets up a cloture vote on Wednesday, Sept. 17, followed by a confirmation vote two hours later.
Dems respond. Senate Democrats know that this effort will help them when they’re back in the majority, but they’re using the occasion to remind Republicans that it was Trump who walked away from a deal to confirm a batch of nominees by voice vote right before the August recess.
Interestingly, here’s what Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the future Democratic whip, said about the idea that Democrats will benefit from this rules change, too:
“I’m gonna try not to make a mess of myself on this one. You’ve heard lots of members speak vociferously against rules changes depending on if they’re in the minority or the majority. So I’m not gonna do that. But I will just say this is a failure of a negotiation. We actually had a deal. They’ve decided they don’t want to deal with us at all.”
