Overview

• Republicans on Wednesday approved procedures to consider nominees en bloc and invoked cloture on the first package, setting a Thursday confirmation vote.
• The new process covers subcabinet officials and certain ambassadors but excludes judicial, Cabinet, and Supreme Court picks.
• All 48 nominees in the initial tranche advanced from committees with bipartisan support, including ambassador picks Kimberly Guilfoyle for Greece and Callista Gingrich for Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
• Majority Whip John Barrasso said Democrats had stalled confirmations, while GOP leaders project clearing roughly 150 civilian nominees in the coming weeks.
• Republicans modeled the approach on a prior Klobuchar–King bundling concept after bipartisan package talks fell apart when President Trump rejected a deal.