Rushmore State News

At a press conference in Washington, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed the ongoing delays in confirming executive branch nominees. Thune stated that Senate Republicans are working to address what he described as a blockade by Democrats on nominee confirmations.

Thune explained that for the past eight months, Democrats have resisted confirming nominees by unanimous consent or voice vote, practices he said were routine until recently. As a result, many of President Trump’s nominees remain unconfirmed and unable to begin their roles.

“This is a problem the Democrats created, and we intend to fix it,” Thune said. He added that Republicans are seeking a rules change to allow processing of nominees in batches, which was standard procedure until this session.

“So all we’re simply talking about doing is restoring that precedent, going back to the way that has been done historically, and seeing that a lot of these sub-Cabinet, lower level executive branch nominees are able to get confirmed so the president can have his team in place, implement the agenda that the American people elected him to implement.”

Thune noted there has been no cooperation from Democratic senators on resolving the issue. He said Senator Cornyn would put forward a unanimous consent request as an opportunity for Democrats to support moving nominees en bloc or in batches.

“If you look at historically how this has worked, and we said this earlier, but every administration has been able to get their people in place. This administration so far, only 12 percent,” Thune said. He contrasted this with 62 percent of Biden administration nominees being confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote in 2023.

He also highlighted that the current Senate session is among the busiest in four decades based on hours and votes cast. More than 500 votes have already taken place this year; catching up with pending nominations would require another 600 votes before year’s end.

“This process is broken,” Thune concluded. “This is a business model that does not work when it comes to running and operating a government and that’s why it’s got to be fixed.” He emphasized two options: behavioral change from Democrats or changing Senate rules.