Senate Republicans poised to change rules to speed up Trump’s nominees

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are taking the first steps to change the chamber’s rules on Thursday, moving to make it easier to confirm groups of President Donald Trump’s nominees after last minute negotiations with Democrats fell apart.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s move is the latest salvo after a dozen years of gradual changes by both parties to weaken the filibuster and make the nominations process more partisan. He has said the Democrats’ obstruction is “unsustainable” as they have drawn out the confirmation process and infuriated Trump as many positions in his administration have remained unfilled.

Republicans delayed the votes for almost five hours on Thursday as a bipartisan group of senators tried to work out a deal that could be beneficial to both parties. But they cut those talks short Thursday afternoon amid an impasse as Democrats asked for more time to negotiate.

“How much time is enough?” Thune, R-S.D., angrily asked Democrats as he moved to resume votes. He said that the deal was based on a Democratic proposal when President Joe Biden was in office and that the two parties had already been negotiating for weeks.

“We’ve got to fix this,” Thune said. “It’s time to vote.”

Having abandoned the bipartisan talks, Republicans reverted to their original plan to hold several procedural votes that will allow them to move a group of 48 of Trump’s nominees. As part of the vote series they will ask to “overturn the chair,” or change the rules, which takes a simple majority vote.

Republicans will have to go through additional procedural steps next week for the process to be complete. And if all goes according to their plan, the first tranche of Trump’s nominees — undersecretaries and staff positions for various agencies across the government as well as several ambassadors — could be confirmed as soon as next Thursday.

The rules change effort comes as both parties have obstructed the other’s nominees for years, and as both Republicans and Democrats have advocated speeding the process when they are in the majority. The Republican rules change stops short of speeding up votes on high-level Cabinet officials and lifetime judicial appointments.

Republicans have been pushing the rules change since early August, when the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan negotiations over the confirmation process and Trump told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” on social media.

Democrats have blocked more nominees than ever before as they have struggled to find ways to oppose Trump and the GOP-dominated Congress, and as their voters have pushed them to fight Republicans at every turn. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.

Schumer has said Democrats are delaying the nominations because Trump’s nominees are “historically bad.”

“If you don’t debate nominees, if you don’t vote on individual nominees, if there’s not some degree of sunlight, 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 Monday.

Still, Democrats continued talks with Republicans into Thursday afternoon as Republicans delayed their votes. The two sides discussed a compromise that would have limited the groups of nominees to 15 and shortened the length of debate.

But in the end, they were not able to agree. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said they were “achingly close to a deal.”

“But I am afraid my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have run out of patience,” he added.

“The Senate is stuck,” said Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a Republican who led the negotiations. “The challenge is this body has just broken down trust.”

Schumer has told Republicans that they will “come to regret” their action — echoing a similar warning from GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013, when Democrats changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations. At the time, Republicans were blocking President Barack Obama’s picks.

Republicans took the Senate majority a year later, and McConnell eventually did the same for Supreme Court nominees in 2017 as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“I say to my Republican colleagues, think carefully before taking this step,” Schumer said.