Senate Republicans Advance Nearly 100 Trump Nominees After Procedural Hurdle
Senate Republicans recently cleared the first procedural hurdle to advance 97 nominees put forward by former President Donald Trump, with a final confirmation vote expected next week. This move marks the third instance since September where Republicans advanced a bloc of Trump's nominees by changing Senate confirmation rules.
If confirmed, Republicans will have approved over 400 of Trump's nominees during the first year of his second term, surpassing the 350 confirmations achieved by President Biden at a similar point.
Notable nominees in this package include Anthony D’Esposito for inspector general at the Department of Labor, along with James Murphy and Scott Mayer for positions on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Murphy and Mayer's nominations followed after Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, a decision upheld as legal by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
One of the nominations, Sara Carter's for a cabinet-level position (noted as Sara Bailey in some reports), would have required a 60-vote threshold. To avoid this higher threshold, Republicans expanded the package by including nine additional nominees.
The Senate Republicans' push followed an objection by Senator Bennet and employed the "nuclear option," which allowed the confirmation process for sub-Cabinet nominations to be shifted to a 50-vote simple majority, thereby narrowing the scope of the confirmation fight.
