The Senate is set to finally begin its August recess without a deal on nominations as Republicans are intent on moving forward with a rules change to limit length of time spent on individual nominees enable President Trump’s selections to be confirmed more expeditiously due to a Democratic blockade.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had been trading offers throughout Friday night and Saturday. However, they were unable to seal the deal on a package that would have allowed roughly two dozen nominees to be approved before the month-long August break, which lawmakers have been anxious for.
In exchange for allowing the group of non-controversial nominees to be approved, Schumer had been pushing for billions of dollars of restored funding in foreign aid and for the National Institutes of Health.
Trump, however, made clear that he would not throw his weight behind that agreement.
“Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country. This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“It is political extortion, by any other name,” Trump continued. “Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL! Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country.
Trump went on to tell lawmakers: “Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Instead, Senate Republicans are expected to go “nuclear” on nominees once they reconvene in September by moving to change the rules with 51 votes needed.
That would likely involve chopping down the time between cloture and confirmation votes to a fraction of the current time. Democrats are forcing a full two hours of consideration for many of the lower-level administration nominees and judicial choices the Senate is currently moving through.
As its last action before recess, the Senate moved to process seven additional nominees, including longtime Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro to become U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and former Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) to lead the Federal Transit Administration.
Schumer hailed the outcome as a victory for Democrats as Republicans failed to pressure him to agree to confirm a bigger group of nominees by unanimous consent or voice vote.
“Donald Trump didn’t get his away. Again, this shows us. He bullied us, he cajoled us, he called us names and he went home with nothing,” Schumer said at a press conference Saturday night.
“The Art of the Deal,” Schumer wrote on a social media repost of Trump’s Truth Social post slamming “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” for demanding funding concessions in exchange for speedy confirmations.
Schumer said the “Republican go-at-it-alone strategy has been devastating for American families: higher prices on everything from health care and groceries to utility bills, to essential goods. That is not what voters had in mind when they handed Republicans very narrow majorities in Congress and a paper-thin presidential victory.”
Schumer said it would be a “huge mistake” for Republicans to unilaterally change the Senate rules to speed the confirmation of more than 100 stalled nominees, many of them to fill lower-level positions.
“Because they when they go at it alone, they screw up,” Schumer argued. “We should be working together [toward] legislation to get things done for the American people. That’s the way to go, not changing the rules. Because when they change the rules they say only we’re going to decide what’s good for the American people.”
Alexander Bolton contributed
Updated at 9:44 p.m. EDT
