The Trump administration is putting pressure on Senate Republicans to crack down on Democratic efforts to delay its agenda, fueling talk about the need for rules reform among Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Republicans are in discussions with Democrats about bipartisan changes to Senate rules to speed up consideration of President Trump’s judicial and executive branch nominees, but if that effort flounders — as similar ones have in the past — they’re not ruling out unilateral action.
White House patience with the Senate’s backlog of nominees is wearing out, as Vice President Pence made clear during a private meeting with the Senate Republican Conference on Tuesday, according to lawmakers who attended the discussion.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short on Friday accused Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of “weaponizing” the rules to keep executive and judicial branch positions vacant.
Short noted that Democrats have required Republicans to hold 79 cloture votes on nominees during Trump’s first 14 months in office.
“That’s roughly five times the number of the last four administrations combined,” he said.
A cloture vote ends dilatory action on a bill or nominee and is often used to end filibusters. It requires 60 votes to pass.
During the first 14 months of the past four administrations — a span of 56 months under Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton and George H.W. Bush — the Senate held 17 such votes, according to Short.
He promised that Trump would begin to speak out aggressively in response to what he called “historic obstruction.”
“I think that perhaps I’m a warm-up act for him making a larger foray into this,” Short told reporters.
He said Trump would “make his case to the American people that the objection has gotten ridiculous.”
A spokesman for Schumer on Friday blamed the administration and Senate Republicans for the backlog of nominees.
“This administration has been historically slow in submitting nominations and has withdrawn more nominees in the first year than any of the past four administrations,” said the Schumer aide.
The Democratic aide also noted there are currently 145 nominees awaiting action from Republican-controlled committees.
