Senate Faces Dilemma With Slow Rate of Confirmations

Republicans are contemplating new measures to increase the rate of confirmations for President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Last week, the Senate Republican Communications Center noted that 107 civilian nominees have been confirmed by the upper chamber. That is about 42% of the 255 who were voted out of a committee to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

As of July 22, within that group, 86 key positions like ambassadors and Cabinet secretaries have been confirmed. Without significantly more confirmations while the Senate is still in Washington before it leaves for its August recess, the number of Trump confirmations will continue to lag.

A civilian nominee is defined by Congress as an individual who is being proposed for a role that is not an officer position in the military or uniformed services.

By comparison, at the end of then-President Joe Biden’s first eight months in office in August 2021, about 150 of his civilian nominees were confirmed, which was approximately 74% of those voted out of committee and reported to the full Senate. By the end of August in Trump’s first term, about 130 Trump civilian nominees were confirmed, which was around 76% of those reported to the full Senate.

The discrepancy in confirmations has been driven in large part by what Republicans describe as Democrat obstructionism. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has thrown up procedural hurdles and has led the Democrat effort to prevent confirmations being passed by unanimous consent.

Schumer’s GOP counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., recently noted that Trump was the only president on record “to not have a single one of his civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote at this point in his presidency.” In a speech on the Senate floor, Thune compared that to the 44 Biden nominees who had been confirmed by voice note in the Senate up to this same point in his term.

The question remains, however, if Thune is willing to break the Democrat blockade by exhausting the chamber with confirmation votes.

“We haven’t ruled anything out. I think the options are on the table. The Democrats can continue with this historic and unprecedented level of obstructionism, or they can work with us, and we can get some of these things, some of them done,” Thune said Monday.

Trump has nominated 356 individuals so far to make his mark on the federal government, according to a Washington Post tracker run in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service. Approximately 1,300 federal government positions require Senate confirmation. As of July 25, there were 294 positions where Trump has not yet nominated anyone, while 177 people are serving from previous administrations or are in termed positions. 

As of Monday, the president had 255 civilian nominees reported by committees to the full Senate. Within that group, there are 144 civilian nominees on the Senate calendar that are ready to be confirmed to top positions in major executive branch agencies responsible for labor, education, and agriculture, as well as the federal court system.

Senate leadership has touted the number of civilian nominees approved by the upper chamber so far, but nonetheless, several senators have expressed impatience with the rate of confirmation.

“There is absolutely zero reason we should have this backlog—especially with such important nominations,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said on the Senate floor Thursday.

As it stands right now, the number of confirmations for non-Cabinet appointments is far below where the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations were during the same time period. 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have both publicly discussed letting the president make recess appointments. Those appointments are made when the Senate is out of session, therefore, they are not subject to Senate confirmation under the Constitution. Recess appointments can last for as long as one or two years before expiring. 

The president, for his part, has urged the Senate to cancel its August recess to get his nominees confirmed. 

“Hopefully, the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!) in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on July 19.

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