Changes to the confirmation process are on the table as frustrations among Senate Republicans continue to fester while Senate Democrats continue their blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Republicans have spent much of the week working deep into the night to confirm nomination after nomination, but Democrats have yet to relent and allow for any speeding up of the process.
That reality, and a request from Trump to consider canceling the fast-approaching August recess to ram through more of his nominees, has the Senate GOP mulling changes to the rules, like shortening the debate time on nominees or bundling together some picks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., charged that Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominations was ‘Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.’
‘If we’re going to do something, we’re going to look at how we would make a modification to our rules to ensure that we can’t have the kind of delay and obstruction and blocking that the Democrats are currently using,’ Thune said.
Changing the rules, however, could open the door for Democrats to take advantage of the modifications and set a new precedent for the confirmation process.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats were just playing by the same rules that Republicans operated under when they had the majority.
‘I think that’s the only way to — a do unto others situation,’ he said. ‘And I warn them: things that sound so appealing now to make a quick change in the rules, they may soon have to live with.’
However, Senate Republicans did play ball, for the most part, with their counterparts when former President Joe Biden was in the White House. This time four years ago, Biden had 49 civilian nominees confirmed by a voice vote, a much faster and simpler process that didn’t require a full vote on the Senate floor.
And during Trump’s first term, he had five civilian nominees confirmed by voice vote. While the Senate has now confirmed over 100 of the president’s nominees, more and more of his picks — over 160 and counting — are being added to the Senate’s calendar, and Republicans are hoping that Democrats agree to a deal to move a package of nominees through the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., believed his colleagues were inclined to make changes to the rules in the face of continued Democratic resistance.
‘I think it is a big mistake where we are now,’ he said. ‘Push is going to come to shove. If there is no negotiation and no settlement before that, I believe that the rules will change.’
Some Republicans, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., are not too concerned about changing the precedent in the Senate, given that over the last several years the nomination process has deteriorated into a partisan stand-off.
‘I’m happy to change the precedent to allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to be able to staff his administration,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital. ‘I think the confirmation system is completely out of control. I can’t imagine our Founding Fathers really thought the Senate ought to be able to advise consent on hundreds and hundreds of positions. It’s ridiculous.’
Meanwhile, Trump targeted Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for not doing away with ‘blue slips,’ a longtime Senate practice that effectively gives senators the ability to veto district court and U.S. attorney nominees in their home states.
Grassley said that he was ‘offended’ by Trump’s attack, but didn’t appear to budge on the blue slip issue. However, Grassley did ignore blue slips in 2017 to hold hearings for a pair of the president’s judicial nominees during his first term.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that he didn’t know why Republicans wouldn’t want to have normal scrutiny and debate over their nominees.
‘Trump says jump and Senate Republicans ask how high, which is really sad for an institution with such a great sense of tradition and self-respect,’ he said.