![]() Occasionally, a nominee will face a filibuster, then be confirmed unanimously, as West Virginia District Judge Frank Volk was in 2019. Majority leaders under both Obama and Trump changed Senate rules to ease confirmation of their president’s nominees, infuriating the Senate minority and leading to intense use of procedural delays on even noncontroversial picks. Under Trump, Republicans have also put holds on his nominees, creating unusual intra-GOP tension. “A lot of have been less qualified, many of them are less mainstream.”Īnd Democrats are not alone in thwarting the president. “This administration’s playing by a different set of rules, and so it requires us to think differently about the rules that we apply,” said Sen. ![]() But senators can still filibuster nominees and require two votes per nomination, with a simple majority now needed for confirmation, which uses up hours or days of floor time.ĭemocrats say they are holding up Trump’s picks because the GOP and Trump administration have abandoned all pretense of getting bipartisan buy-in for staffing the administration. Democrats got rid of the 60-vote threshold on most nominees in 2013 the GOP finished the job on Supreme Court appointments in 2017. The procedural tool’s power has been greatly diminished in recent years. Bush, became incredibly popular during Obama’s presidency and is now routine during Trump’s. The filibuster on nominations picked up steam under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. The campaign to thwart Fortas’ nomination ended with his resignation from the high court. The practice of blocking or delaying presidential nominees didn’t even begin until Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was picked to be chief justice of the United States by President Lyndon B. All previous presidents combined faced 244 roll call votes to advance nominees over a filibuster. And the party’s base has no interest in seeing Senate Democrats bend: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was criticized in the past for cutting deals to quickly confirm Trump’s nominees.ĭuring Trump’s presidency, McConnell and the Senate GOP have held time-sapping roll call votes to break a filibuster and end debate on nominees a whopping 314 times, according to Senate tallies. If they go easy on Trump’s executive branch appointments, it would give Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) more floor time to confirm judges. Any one senator can do it, and there’s enormous political pressure from the opposition party to resist nominees of a sitting president - especially a controversial figure like Trump.ĭemocrats say Trump’s nominees are different: Partisan, unqualified and worth fighting. With Senate leaders gutting the chamber’s supermajority requirement for nominees, delaying an eventual confirmation is now the only tool the Senate minority has to fight nominees they oppose. If you do it to one side, it tends to happen to the other side.” Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who faced little opposition when confirmed to be Bush’s budget director and top trade diplomat. “It’s a major concern, having gone through a couple confirmations myself,” said Sen. And it’s hard to imagine that Republicans will go easy on Biden if he wins, even as both parties decry the trend. It’s the latest glaring sign of Senate dysfunction, showing just how difficult it has become to staff up an administration. Then Trump came along and became the record holder in just part of a term, according to a POLITICO analysis of Senate votes. Bush faced the most procedural hurdles and filibusters to his nominees until Barack Obama was elected and faced historic blockades. ![]() The Senate’s confirmation process is nearly broken, and the numbers show it’s a race to the bottom.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |