Thune: Senate Overcomes Historic Democrat Blockade to Confirm President Trump’s Nominees

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune's remarks below (as delivered):

"Mr. President, I am very pleased to report that as of yesterday, the Senate has confirmed a total of 314 of President Trump's civilian nominees.

"And earlier this week I filed on another nominations package, which, when passed, will bring our total confirmations to more than 400.

"That far outstrips total confirmations by this point in President Biden's term, and in President Trump's first term as well.

"And it's particularly notable that we've managed to beat those first-term numbers when you consider the obstacles the Democrats have put up.

"I've talked more than once here on the floor about Democrats' unprecedented obstruction of the president's nominees this year.

"And I really do mean unprecedented.

"For decades upon decades, the Senate has expedited the consideration of large numbers of presidential nominees, confirming them by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, for example, each had 98 percent of their civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote in the first term of their presidencies.

"98 percent.

"George W. Bush and Barack Obama each had 90 percent.

"Now, it's true that Democrats substantially eroded this tradition of bipartisanship during President Trump's first term.

"All of a sudden, positions that had traditionally gone by unanimous consent or voice vote were now requiring roll call votes.

"But even so, both President Biden and President Trump in his first term had more than half of their nominees confirmed by voice vote.

"And then there was this year.

"This year, not one single presidential nominee has been confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"Not one.

"Democrats have dragged out the process on every single one of the president's nominations.

"The Democrat leader tried to justify Democrats' historic blockade by claiming that the president's nominees have been, quote, 'historically bad.'

"The only problem with that, Mr. President, is the Democrats have supported a number of the president's nominees in committee and have even voted for some of them on the Senate floor.

"So either members of the Democrat Party are supporting historically bad nominees, or something else is going on here.

"And I think we know what that is, Mr. President.

"That something else that's going on here looks a lot like petty partisanship.

"Maybe you want to call it Trump Derangement Syndrome.

"Democrats - and their base - still can't deal with the fact that President Trump won last November.

"And so they have held up every single one - every single one - of his nominations in revenge.

"But Republicans have not been daunted.

"We've just continued ploughing ahead on nominations - helping us rack up a historic number of votes this year in the process.

"And in September we took steps to restore Senate precedent and codify in Senate rules what was once understood to be standard practice - and that is the Senate's acting expeditiously on largely noncontroversial presidential nominees to allow a president to get his team in place.

"Now both Democrat and Republican presidents will be protected from some of the partisan excesses that we've seen from Democrats this year.

"2025 has been a long road, Mr. President - but I'm very proud to be able to say that, at the end of it, that we are well on our way to confirming more than 400 of the president's civilian nominees.

"And that we have virtually cleared the nominations backlog by the end of his first year - in contrast to the situation at this point in President Trump's first term and in President Biden's.

"And when the Senate returns in January, I look forward to continuing to confirm additional members of the president's team, so that he can continue to do the job to which he was elected by the American people."

Permalink: https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2025/12/thune-senate-overcomes-historic-democrat-blockade-to-confirm-president-trump-s-nominees