Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is set to leverage a Democratic precedent to override their obstruction and clear through the lengthy backlog of nominees.
Democrats have held up President Donald Trump's Senate nominees for months, making it the first administration ever not to have a single nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent. Instead, Democrats are digging their heels in and forcing "time-consuming" votes on uncontroversial nominees who later get confirmed along bipartisan lines. Now, the "nuclear option" is on the table.
'It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.'
"It’s delay for delay’s sake, and it’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty in agencies across the federal government and robs our duly elected president of a team to enact the agenda that the American people voted for in November," Thune said in an op-ed for Breitbart.
"Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer," Thune added. "We have tried to work with Democrats in good faith to batch bipartisan, noncontroversial nominees and clear them expeditiously, according to past precedent. Democrats have stood in the way at every turn."
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Over the last month, Republican senators have developed a rule change based on a proposal initially introduced by Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Angus King of Maine in 2023, one Republican aide told Blaze News.
Starting Monday, Thune will begin reforming the Senate rules based on the Democratic proposal, allowing Republicans to confirm nominees in batches, the aide confirmed to Blaze News. Without this rule change, the Senate would need to hold over 600 roll call votes just to clear the backlog of nominees who are currently on the docket.
"No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now, in a way that has never been done before," Thune said.
Since Trump took office in January, the Senate has taken more votes than any other Senate at this point in over three decades. Despite this, the current confirmation pace has plateaued due to Democrats' obstruction, which Thune said comes down to one thing.
"It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids."
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President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to slash billions more in foreign spending with the White House's latest rescissions package.
Trump notified Congress Thursday night of his proposed rescissions package, which is set to slash nearly $5 billion in foreign aid programs, Blaze News confirmed.
'Russ is now at the helm.'
The latest cuts include $3.2 billion in USAID funding, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million of State Department contributions to other international organizations, $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities, and another $445 million in peacekeeping aid.
"Since January, we’ve saved the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X.
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"And with a small set of core programs moved over to the State Department, USAID is officially in closeout mode," Rubio added. "Russ is now at the helm to oversee the closeout of an agency that long ago went off the rails. Congrats, Russ."
Trump, alongside Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, got a $9 billion rescissions package passed through Congress back in July, which similarly cut back on foreign aid spending as well as funding for public broadcasting.
The Senate narrowly passed the rescissions package 51-48 after an overnight vote-a-rama on July 17. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine bucked their party and voted against the spending cuts.
The House promptly passed the cuts the following afternoon in a 216-213 vote. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against the package.
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Congress now has 45 days to pass Trump's rescissions package. Notably, Congress will also be tasked with tackling the budget before the September 30 funding deadline. Despite the urgency, lawmakers have been out of town for August recess and are expected to come back into session starting September 2.
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Thune and the Senate GOP have shown little to no appetite for doing what's necessary to get the president's nominees across the finish line.
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