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Senate Republicans Go Nuclear to End Democrat 'Obstruction' of Trump's Backlogged Nominees

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Senate Republicans, frustrated with a major backlog of lower-level judicial and agency nominees, resorted to the "nuclear option" this week to permanently speed up the confirmation process.

The so-called nuclear option will change rules in the Senate to cut down the time it takes to confirm the nominees, but it's also a double-edged sword. Still, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that's a risk he's willing to take. 

This option, which only needs a simple majority to pass, changes Senate rules to remove the filibuster against nominees and cut debate time from 30 hours to two hours.

"Since January 2017, for the first time in memory, a minority has exploited procedure to systematically obstruct a president from staffing up his administration,' McConnell wrote in an op-ed for Politico. "This new, across-the-board obstruction is unfair to the president and, more importantly, to the American people. Left unchecked, it is guaranteed to create an unsustainable precedent that would see every future presidency of either party obstructed in the same mindless way. The Senate needs to restore normalcy."

McConnell points out in the op-ed that despite the full 30 hours of debate time being used on "non-controversial" nominees, many are then confirmed unanimously.

"It took six months of partisan delays — and several railroad accidents — before Democrats let the Senate confirm a federal railroad administrator, even though none of them actually voted against the nominee in the end," continued McConnell. "It's been 354 days and counting in Senate purgatory for the president's nominee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Two-hundred eighty-seven days and counting for the undersecretary of state for management. Noncontroversial lower court nominees have languished for weeks and weeks — for no discernible reason — before they, too, were confirmed unanimously."

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told CBN News he supports this decision and believes Democrats would, too, if it was their party controlling the White House.

"The Democrats are all for this if it would go into effect in 2021, that's what I don't like about this place," said Braun. "I'd feel almost certain that if they had the leverage of power there'd be almost no doubt what would happen and here the fact that in the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations there were only - in the first two years - an average of eight cloture votes and we've had 128, I'm glad leader McConnell is doing it."

The vote passed Wednesday largely along party lines. This marks the third time in nearly a decade that a Senate majority resorted to the nuclear option against certain types of filibusters. Many fear the broader filibuster used against legislation could one day also go away entirely in a chamber that's designed to move slower.

"It is an erosion of the Senate's responsibility," says Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the longest serving Democrat in the Senate. "It is a removal of one of the last guardrails for quality and bipartisanship in the nominations process. It is a shortsighted partisan power grab."

President Trump has suggested McConnell get rid of the filibuster for good, but McConnell has quashed the idea for now, fully aware that Democrats might one day be in the majority.   

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About The Author

Abigail
Robertson

Abigail Robertson serves as the White House Correspondent for CBN News, where she has worked since 2015. As a reporter, Abigail covers stories from a Christian perspective on American politics and the news of the day. Before her role at the White House, Abigail covered Capitol Hill, where she interviewed notable lawmakers such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. During her time on the Hill, Abigail loved highlighting how God is moving in the House and Senate by covering different ministries on Capitol Hill and sharing lawmakers’ testimonies and