Senate Republicans are weighing a number of options to expedite the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominees on the floor of the Senate in order to overcome Democratic filibusters, members warn.
While no decisions have been made, Republicans discussed a range of potential plays they could make during their Tuesday lunch as pressure mounts from Trump to stay in session to clear more of his nominees during the August recess.
While some Republicans are pushing for recess appointments, doing so would be virtually impossible at this point given that the House left town without adjourning for a five-week recess and would have to return to pass a concurrent resolution with the Senate.
The other options on the table, according to senators would be speeding up how long it takes to process nominees or grouping more of them together.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned that the Senate GOP conference is building to a “boiling point” with their frustration with Democrats slow-walking nominees and said they are open to changing Senate rules.
“There’s a lot of interest on our side in seeing what we can do to break the logjam,” he said.
“It’s building, and so at some point — when we reach the boiling point still remains to be seen — but if we don’t see some dealmaking here pretty soon, I think the pressure is going to continue to build,” Thune continued. “Our members are, you know, they’re just frustrated.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CNN, “It would be a sign of desperation to approve completely unqualified nominees, because they’re afraid of sufficient debate and scrutiny.”
He continued, “It would further undermine their credibility and the trust in the president’s nominee, their quality and integrity. Why do they need to rush them through without the normal amount of debate and scrutiny?”
Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said, “We are absolutely trying to avoid a nuclear option issue, but at some point you have to have an operational government and when you are shutting down the government, not letting the president get his people into office and shutting down nominees who have been near unanimous or almost unanimous consent coming out of committees, you are doing it for obstruction purposes only.”
Rounds warned that “it’s an active conversation” right now what other things they can do.
Other Republicans like Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Eric Schmitt of Missouri are more bullish on recess appointments but again, that is a much less likely scenario given the fact the House has already left town.
“It’s the first time every single one has been filibustered by the Democrats, and that’s going to be met with a response [of] recess appointments – unless Chuck Schumer changes his tune – they’re coming,” Schmitt said.
Kennedy said he expects the Senate to be in through the weekend as Republicans try to push through confirmations of nominees.
“I wouldn’t faint with surprise if we were here through the weekend,” Kennedy told reporters Tuesday.
Sen. John Kennedy speaks to reporters outside the Senate Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on June 30. – Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Republicans, including Kennedy, have criticized Democrats for refusing to speed up the confirmation of the president’s nominees by pushing the less controversial ones through using “unanimous consent” – a faster process than individual roll call votes along with other procedural delays. Republican have used similar tactics with nominees during Democratic administrations.
Kennedy said senators need to get home to address pressing concerns with their constituents, including the controversy around the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“It’s not like senators want to go back home and just lay around. They want to go back home and answer their people’s questions about the reconciliation bill and the rescission bill and what they think about, frankly, the Epstein files, that’s all anybody seems to want to talk about, and they want to go back and talk to their constituents,” he said.
Trump urged Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a social media post on Tuesday to “step up” and break with tradition known as the “blue slip” process so that the Senate can confirm Trump nominees for US attorneys and federal judges. The “blue slip” rule is a Senate tradition that takes into account the views of a nominee’s home state senators before moving forward.
“Senator Grassley must step up, like Crooked Joe Biden did, when he openly broke, at least two times, the ‘Blue Slip’ SCAM, and like others have done over the years, and let our Great Republican Judges and U.S. Attorneys BE CONFIRMED. He should do this, IMMEDIATELY, and not let the Democrats laugh at him and the Republican Party for being weak and ineffective. The Democrats have broken this ridiculous custom on us, it’s time that we break it on them. Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Aileen Graef and Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.
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