By Nathan Worcester
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has announced a plan to change the rules to ensure a faster confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Thune previewed the changes in an op-ed published on Breitbart on the morning of Sept. 8.
The majority leader said the new approach was adapted from one developed in 2023 by two senators, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats. At the time, Senate Republicans were erecting their own roadblocks to then-President Joe Biden’s nominees.
Klobuchar and King introduced a resolution to increase the number of nominees that the full Senate can consider en bloc—that is, simultaneously in a block.
The resolution, which carved out exceptions for Supreme Court judges and other top posts, was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration but did not advance any further.
In his article for Breitbart, Thune said the GOP proposal would further increase that number.
He warned that many key slots in the executive branch will remain empty if the Senate doesn’t speed things up.
“No party should be able to weaponize the confirmation process the way that Senate Democrats are doing now,” the South Dakotan wrote.
He is widely expected to use the “nuclear option,” enabling Republicans to alter a standing rule through a simple majority. Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate, along with a possible tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance.
Senate Democrats have withheld unanimous consent and required voice votes on Trump’s nominees, dragging out the process.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former senator, remains the only civilian nominee who has not faced a filibuster in that chamber.
Thune and his GOP colleagues had suggested for well over a month, including in the days ahead of the August recess, that a rules change could be coming.
“Either Democrats are going to play ball or we’re going to figure out a way to change it,” Thune said on July 31.
Before the recess, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that he and Republicans were “exchanging paper and conversations to try and come up with a bipartisan agreement” on nominations.
Yet no deal emerged during the subsequent weeks.
In an Aug. 6 post on Truth Social, Trump urged Republicans to pursue legislation that would expedite the confirmation of nominees in the face of Democratic opposition.
Schumer has consistently defended the slow pace of confirmations.
“Historically bad nominees deserve a historic level of scrutiny by Senate Democrats,” he wrote on X in response to an op-ed from Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who objected to Senate Democrats’ maneuvers.
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