Overview

• In a 53-45 party-line vote, Republicans used the nuclear option to set a new precedent for confirming executive-branch nominees as a group.
• The procedure permits unlimited en bloc confirmations for sub-Cabinet officials and ambassadors while excluding judicial nominations.
• Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats forced individual roll-call votes and claimed the Senate faced roughly 600 more votes to clear the backlog.
• Democrats argued many of President Trump’s nominees are unqualified and require individual scrutiny, warning of further erosion of Senate norms.
• Republicans said GOP senators may object to specific names within a block, but the minority party cannot use the same tool to separate nominees.