Thune: Democrats’ Historic Obstruction Coming to an End

“[I]t’s 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 acting expeditiously on presidential nominations to allow a president to get his team into place.”

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):

“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, Mr. President.

“Now, Mr. President, 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 summarize the longstanding tradition of the Senate – a tradition that Democrats have destroyed this year.

“Mr. President, as the Democrat leader correctly stated, and again I quote, ‘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’s looked like expediting individual nominees and blocks of nominees by using unanimous consent or voice vote – which [is] a way, as you know, here in the Senate, Mr. President, of moving things along more quickly.

“During President George H.W. Bush’s four years in office and President Clinton’s first four 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 civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote in their first terms.

“And 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, Mr. President, despite this new level of partisanship introduced by Democrats, both President Trump in his first term and President Biden had more than half of their nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.

“Well, fast forward to today.

“President Trump has been in office for eight 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’s Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids, Mr. President.

“That’s right.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids.

“If this were a matter of ‘historically bad nominees,’ as the Democrat leader tried to claim, then Democrats wouldn’t be voting for a number of these nominees in committee – or supporting them on final passage.

“No, Mr. President, 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’ve 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, and I quote, ‘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, and I quote again, ‘a full-time employment agency.’

“Mr. President, 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.

“Now, to put that number in perspective, that’s more votes than this record-breaking Senate has taken all year up until now.

“And again, that’s just for nominations that have already been sent to Congress.

“Not those that are going to be forwarded and that we’re 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 Democrat obstruction continues – as Democrats have made abundantly clear that it will – there is no practical way that we could come close to filling all the vacancies in the four years of this administration, no matter how many hours the Senate works.

“And so, Mr. President, we’ve got a crisis.

“And it’s 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 acting expeditiously on presidential nominations to allow a president to get his team into place.

“So this afternoon I’ll 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 Democrat 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 all together 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, and I quote again, ‘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.’

“Mr. President, 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.

“The historic obstruction ends now.

“Democrats have destroyed Senate precedent.

“We’re going to fix it.

“Fix it, and ensure that in 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.”

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