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Roll Call: Republicans move to change Senate rules to speed confirmation of some nominees
Facing insurmountable backlog, Thune moves to allow consideration of multiple nominees as a group
Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first procedural step Monday toward changing the chamber’s rules to speed up the confirmation of lower-level Trump nominees, saying the move is necessary to combat obstruction from Democrats.
Democrats this Congress have forced the GOP majority to use valuable floor time on procedural votes, slowing down the confirmation process and leaving spots unfilled in the Trump administration.
Republicans argue Democrats are destroying a Senate tradition of quickly confirming noncontroversial nominees regardless of the party of the president. But Democrats contend the posture is a needed negotiating tool as Trump has burned through government norms and at times embraced an authoritarian attitude of executive power.
Thune, R-S.D., late Monday asked for immediate consideration of an executive resolution that would authorize the en bloc consideration in executive session of certain nominations. In order to place it on the calendar, he said, he objected to his own request.
The resolution now lies over one calendar day. A copy of the resolution was not immediately available Monday night.
Thune said in a floor speech earlier Monday that after Trump’s eight months in office this term, no civilian nominee has been confirmed by voice vote.
He compared that to other presidents: George W. Bush and Barack Obama each had 90 percent of their civilian nominees confirmed on voice vote, and Trump in his first term and Biden had more than 50 percent.
“It’s time to take steps to restore Senate precedent and codify in Senate rules what was once 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,” Thune said.
Thune said Republicans would seek to speed up confirmations. The change would apply to nominees at the sub-Cabinet level and not Article III judicial nominees, he said.
The objective, he said, was “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.”
The Senate would have to take another 600 votes before the end of the year to clear the current backlog of nominees on the calendar and at committee, Thune said.
“That’s more votes than this record-breaking Senate has taken all year up until now,” Thune said. “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.”
Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the GOP effort, warning Republicans that they would come to regret the decision to “go nuclear.”
“What will stop Donald Trump from nominating even worse individuals than we’ve seen to date, knowing this chamber will rubber-stamp anything he wishes?” Schumer said.
The move is the latest in a history of changing Senate rules to lower vote thresholds in the chamber.
Under then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Republicans in 2017 removed the 60-vote requirement for confirming Supreme Court justices as they sought to confirm Neil M. Gorsuch.
Years before, in 2013, Senate Democrats did away with that vote threshold for other judicial nominees.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, some Senate Democrats have sought to use the lower-level confirmations as a pressure point.
In May, Schumer announced a hold on all Justice Department nominees after the administration agreed to accept a plane from Qatar. That move from Schumer prevented U.S. attorney nominees from moving forward on voice votes.
The same month, Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, put a hold on Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Durbin also warned he might do so for other U.S. attorney nominees who reach the Senate floor.
In February, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, announced he was putting a blanket hold on all Trump administration State Department nominees over the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Just ram King Donald’s incompetent appointees through the process!
Washington Examiner: Congress seethes over Trump’s $5 billion clawback that risks a government shutdown
GOP critics of President Donald Trump’s nearly $5 billion “pocket” rescission for foreign aid said the controversial move, which some have suggested may flout the law, would do them no favors in winning over enough Democrats later this month to fund the government by Oct. 1.
The words of caution extended beyond the GOP’s usual centrist detractors, such as Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), foreshadowing what is likely to be a messy showdown with Democrats in the upper chamber over the coming weeks.
“Anything that gives our Democrat colleagues a reason not to do the bipartisan appropriations process is not a good thing,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said. “And if they can use that as an excuse, that causes us a problem.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), a leadership member, said her “preferable route” to cancel previously appropriated funds would be through the standard annual budget process.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) predicted the legality of pocket rescissions, not used since 1977, will “be tested and litigated in courts.” He reassured Democrats that GOP leadership remained committed to ongoing budget negotiations.
“I think [Democrats] may try and use that as an excuse for not working in a bipartisan way on appropriations, but that’s all it’ll be: an excuse,” Thune told reporters. “They know that I’m committed, Senator Collins is committed, our conference is committed to working constructively to try and fund the government through the normal appropriations process.”
Appropriators are working behind the scenes to craft a yearlong bipartisan spending plan but are likely to need another stopgap funding measure to avoid a shutdown, which will require at least seven Democrats to cross the aisle and break a 60-vote filibuster. Some Democrats say Trump’s pocket rescission, a legally untested maneuver under the Impoundment Control Act that allows presidents in certain cases to withdraw funds without lawmakers’ approval, underscores the need to bolster their resistance to the administration.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a Democratic leadership member with potential 2028 presidential aspirations, previewed the blunt message he was advocating to his progressive colleagues: “It’s time to fight.”
“This is a time to draw a line. I am not giving my vote away to Donald Trump on a budget that’s going to hurt people, on a budget that’s going to take away healthcare, on a budget that’s going to hurt families who are really struggling,” Booker said. “I’m telling folks this is a crossroads.”
Republican leaders expect the rescission, announced last week by the White House budget office, to be ultimately settled by the courts and is already the subject of ongoing litigation. The administration’s legal justification last week was that the money, $3.2 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development and $1.7 billion for State Department programs, was for “wasteful foreign assistance programs” and international groups that “do not support major U.S. policies or priorities or have been operating contrary to American interests for many years.”
A separate rescission from Trump earlier this year required the approval of Congress, which both GOP-led chambers supported. But without buy-in this go-around and so close to a funding cliff, the heartburn is palpable among even Republican appropriators.
Collins, chairwoman of the Appropriations panel facing a battleground reelection next year, has criticized the rescission as a “clear violation of the law.”
Murkowski, another centrist and frequent critic of the president who sits on the Appropriations Committee, doubled down Tuesday in her belief that the White House was unlawfully attempting to further flout Congress’s authority.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of tools, do we?” Murkowski said. “In terms of, is there something legislatively we can do, that’s the challenge. There are a lot of political paths.”
Does anyone actually think a narcissist like Trump cares one bit if his actions adversely affect anyone other than himself?
Congress seethes over Trump’s $5 billion clawback that risks a government shutdown
GOP critics of Trump’s “pocket” rescission said the controversial move would do them no favors in winning over enough Democrats to fund the government.
Talking Points Memo: GAO Makes Official What’s Been Obvious: Trump Admin Is Breaking Impoundment Control Act
The independent agency embedded within the legislative branch that is designed to review federal spending and make recommendations to Congress on cost savings and waste, as well as investigate policy implementation (the real one, not DOGE), has released a new finding that none of us will find surprising.
As part of its 39 different investigations into various actions the Trump administration has taken in the last four months that could qualify as Impoundment Control Act violations, the Government Accountability Office determined this afternoon that the Trump administration has, in fact, done just that.
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Big picture, the non-partisan congressional watchdog is expected to issue more rulings in coming months as it works its way through nearly 40 other similar investigations into whether the Trump administration has violated the 51-year-old law in other ways. The Trump White House has already called the GAO finding “wrong” and GAO opinions are, in general, considered nonbinding recommendations to Congress. Such a finding might matter more in an era where congressional Republicans were not already so willing to choke down all of Trump’s DOGE cuts.
The Hill: Senate Republicans want to break up House’s Trump bill into bite-size pieces
Senate Republicans say the House-drafted bill to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda has “problems” and are taking a second look at breaking it up into smaller pieces in hopes of getting the president’s less controversial priorities enacted into law before the fall.
Even if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) manages to squeak Trump’s agenda through the House, it faces major obstacles in the Senate, where moderate Republicans say they oppose proposed cuts to Medicaid and fiscal conservatives say it doesn’t go nearly far enough in cutting the deficit.
“There are still a lot of problems,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss internal Senate GOP discussions on the budget reconciliation bill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5304984-trump-agenda-stalled-senate-considering-split
Washington Post: In rare move, Congress pushes back on Trump over Library of Congress
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Congress refuses to accept the appointment of King Donald’s stooge as the head of their library:
In a rare bipartisan effort to defend its institutional authority, Congress is quietly resisting President Donald Trump’s attempt to assert control over the Library of Congress — a move that experts say threatens the separation of powers and the integrity of the legislative branch’s premier research body.
Pushing back on Trump’s designation of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting librarian, lawmakers said Tuesday that control of the institution remains with its top career official, Robert R. Newlen. Newlen told staff at the library that he is the acting head, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.
In rare move, Congress pushes back on Trump over Library of Congress
Lawmakers are raising separation-of-powers concerns as the White House seeks to install a Justice Department official at the legislative-branch institution.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/13/trump-library-of-congress-power-struggle
Associated Press: Trump’s plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries
For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.
“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the Republican told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”
Critics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.
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But security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.
A former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.
Trump’s plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries
For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer. But Trump’s plan threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-qatar-air-force-one-2ef13d87b71185bde547abe6840b098c