Thune: Time’s Up for Democrat Obstructionists

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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):

"I would just say to my colleagues on the Democrat side: How much time is enough?

"How much time is enough?

"The proposal that we are voting on - or want to vote on and just asked consent to get on - has been around for two years!

"Introduced by Democrats.

"They had a hearing in the Rules Committee.

"It's been around for two years!

"In fact, what we're supposed to vote on today is less expansive than the bill that was discussed in the Rules Committee.

"The Democrat Rules Committee.

"A proposal made by Democrats.

"We don't include judges in this; your proposal did.

"We're asking you to vote on a Democrat proposal and you're saying, 'No, we won't even vote on it; we won't even get on it!'

"Give me a break.

"Two years is not long enough?

"How about eight months?

"Eight months of this.

"Eight months of this.

"Look at that chart - zero.

"Every president going back to '41,' George H. W. Bush, has had a majority - a supermajority - of their nominees approved here in the Senate by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"Look at that!

"Ninety-eight percent.

"Ninety-eight percent for Bill Clinton.

"Ninety percent for George W. Bush, 90 percent for Obama.

"Sixty-five percent for Trump I.

"Fifty-seven percent for Biden.

"Not trending in the right direction - which argues for everything that's being said here today about, we need to fix a broken process.

"But that, that is an embarrassment.

"Zero.

"Show the other chart, we've got a second chart here.

"This is what we're talking about.

"We've got to fix this, guys, and we've had plenty of time to do it - eight months.

"Eight months.

"This is what we left on before the August break, was this issue.

"So now we are six weeks into it. We've had all week.

"I've been saying all week, 'We're going to vote on this on Thursday, one way or the other.'

"We're going to change this process in a way that gets us back to what every president prior has had when it comes to the way that these nominees are treated here in the United States Senate - by both sides, Republicans and Democrats; both presidents, Republicans and Democrats.

"That's the way it's been handled.

"Look at that! Zero.

"President Biden had 530 of his nominees confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, has to be fixed.

"We offered you a proposal that had your fingerprints on it - wasn't even your fingerprints, you initiated it!

"And all we're saying is, give us a chance to vote on it.

"And even some of your own members.

"The senator from Oregon said, 'I want an amendment.' We said, 'Fine, you can have an amendment vote.'

"But we need to vote.

"We need to fix this.

"And yeah, we could drag it out over the weekend, and you could start adding more conditions and more ideas.

"The good idea fairy will start to circulate around here, and we'll have a whole bunch more conversations, and it will drag on - and nothing will get done.

"It's time to move.

"Time to quit stalling.

"Time to vote.

"Time to fix this place, and the ideal way to fix it would be in a bipartisan way.

"Democrats and Republicans coming together behind a proposal that makes all the sense in the world and that both sides agree, frankly, is probably the right solution to do this.

"We looked at them all. We looked at all the options.

"We had some very good people who spent the month of August examining how to fix this process in a way that would get us to an outcome that preserved the institutional prerogatives of the Senate, that preserves advice and consent under the Constitution, but gets away from that embarrassing statistic and the fact that we are spending all our time.

"Do you guys like the fact that we're a personnel department?

"That the Senate spends two-thirds of its time on nominees?

"We've cast over 500 votes this year in the Senate - more than any Senate in history at this point in the term of the Senate.

"To finish just the nominees in the pipeline today, between now and the end of the year, we would have to cast another 600 votes.

"Not to mention all the intervening time periods and filing cloture and everything else.

"That's what this means - another 600 votes.

"We've cast over 500 in the first seven months of this session.

"We'd have to cast more than that in the last three-and-a-half months just to get the pipeline cleared, which doesn't mean all the additional noms that are coming through, or judges.

"This is a broken process, folks.

"That's an embarrassment.

"That's what you gave us.

"No, I won't yield.

"We're going to fix this.

"We're going to start to fix it today, I hope.

"And I would hope that, when we have people in good faith put forward an offer, that you would at least let us get on that good offer.

"A solution, a solution that is bipartisan, initiated by Democrats two years ago, which has been talked about ad infinitum, ad nauseam, just this week alone - not to mention the six weeks going back to the end of the July work period."

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