Rushmore State News

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed the Senate on September 2, 2025, raising concerns about what he described as unprecedented obstruction by Senate Democrats regarding the confirmation of President Trump’s civilian nominees.

Thune highlighted the Senate's legislative activity in 2025, noting that it had already held 499 votes in eight months, surpassing the annual totals for all but two of the past 36 years. He said this reflected the Senate’s efforts to confirm nominees, repeal regulations from the previous administration, and pass legislation to prevent tax increases.

He pointed out that despite progress on appropriations bills—three out of twelve passed before August for the first time in years—more work remained ahead. Thune called on Democrats to avoid a government shutdown and cooperate on funding legislation by the September 30 deadline.

Thune also addressed delays in confirming President Trump’s nominees. He stated: “Thanks to a lot of hours here in the Senate to overcome Democrat obstruction, we went into August having confirmed 135 of the president’s civilian nominees – more than had been confirmed by this point in his first term.”

He compared current practices with those under previous administrations: “President George H. W. Bush had 98 percent of his civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote here in the Senate. So did President Clinton. President George W. Bush and President Obama both had 90 percent... But things changed during the first Trump administration – Democrats started obstructing nominees who would previously have been confirmed without a drawn-out process.”

Thune claimed that as of September 2, none of President Trump’s civilian nominees had been confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote, while at least 76 such confirmations occurred under President Biden at this point in his administration.

He added: “Between the calendar and committees, we currently have nominees pending for a total of 302 civilian positions. Ninety-five percent of those positions – 95 percent – were confirmed by voice vote at least once during the previous three incoming administrations. And yet Democrats seem unwilling to expedite consideration for a single one.”

Thune argued that historic bipartisan cooperation is being ignored: “The American people elected President Trump, and like any president, he deserves to be able to fill up his administration... Now, that doesn’t mean rubber-stamping every nominee, but it does mean an end to the ridiculous – and I mean ridiculous – delays on every nomination, including on nominations that Democrats ended up supporting in significant numbers.”

He noted bipartisan support for many confirmations: “Sixty-one out of the 135 civilian nominees confirmed received at least one Democrat vote on final confirmation. And fully half of the civilian nominees currently on the calendar were reported out of committee with bipartisan support.”

According to Thune, Democratic opposition is less about policy objections and more about opposition to President Trump personally: “Democrats aren’t holding up nominations to minor administration positions out of principled opposition; they’re holding them up because they don’t like President Trump.”

Thune concluded with a warning that continued delays could force procedural changes: “But if Democrats continue to obstruct... then we’re going to have to take steps to get this process back on a reasonable footing... The ball... is in the Democrats’ court.”