Senate To Confirm 97 More Trump Nominees After Democrat Blockade Fails

Republicans will confirm a bloc of eight dozen Trump nominees as soon as next week following an attempted blockade by Senate Democrats.

Republican leadership planned Thursday to kick-off the procedural process to confirm 88 of President Donald Trump’s nominees in a bloc vote, but were initially thwarted by Democratic Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who challenged the package for violating Senate rules. When Republicans refiled the package later on Thursday, the conference included an additional nine nominees, bringing the total to nearly 100.

Democrats blocked the group package because Sara Bailey — one of President Donald Trump’s nominees included in the package — was not eligible to be included.

When Republicans went nuclear in September to streamline the confirmation process over Democrats’ fierce objections, the conference did not allow cabinet-level positions or judicial appointments to be confirmed in a group package.

Bailey, a former Fox News contributor, has been tapped to serve as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is a senior-level position on par with a cabinet secretary.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued that Democrats’ delay tactics amounted to “Trump Derangement Syndrome” during remarks on the Senate floor Thursday.

“Democrats – and their base – still can’t deal with the fact that President Trump won last November,” Thune said on the Senate floor. “And so they have held up every single one – every single one – of his nominations in revenge.”

The new package includes former Republican New York Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who has been appointed to serve as inspector general of the Department of Labor. Thirteen U.S. attorney nominees and dozens of lower-level executive branch nominees are also teed up for confirmation.

The Senate has confirmed 314 civilian nominees as of Thursday evening, according to a tally by the Senate Republican Communications Center.

The 97-member bloc would bring the Senate to more than 410 civilian confirmations in the first year of Trump’s second term.

“That far outstrips total confirmations by this point in President Biden’s term, and in President Trump’s first term as well,” Thune said Thursday.

Thune also said that Senate Republicans have virtually cleared the nominations backlog. Before Republicans changed Senate precedent to allow for certain nominees to be confirmed in groups, more than 150 of the president’s picks were awaiting floor consideration.

The Senate approved a 48-member nominations package in September and an additional 108 of the president’s picks in a single group vote in October.

Bennet celebrated his short-lived blockade of Trump’s nominees Thursday before Republicans added more individuals to the resolution.

“I will not allow unqualified nominees, this White House, or the President to undermine the rule of law and our national security,” Bennet wrote in a statement posted to social media.