Senate Republicans take first steps to change rules to speed up Trump's
nominees
[September 12, 2025]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans took the first steps to change the
chamber’s rules on Thursday, moving to make it easier to confirm groups
of President Donald Trump’s nominees after last-minute negotiations with
Democrats fell apart.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s move is the latest salvo after a
dozen years of gradual changes by both parties to weaken the filibuster
and make the nominations process more partisan. He has said the
Democrats’ obstruction is “unsustainable” as they have drawn out the
confirmation process and infuriated Trump as many positions in his
administration have remained unfilled.
“We’re going to fix this today, and restore the longtime Senate
precedent of expeditious confirmation, and the Senate’s role as first
and foremost a legislative body,” Thune said.
The Senate on Thursday evening moved forward on the proposed rule change
with a 45-53 party line vote. The new rules proposal would allow the
Senate to move some of Trump’s nominees in groups of 48 at a time. The
Republican rules change stops short of speeding up votes on high-level
Cabinet officials and lifetime judicial appointments.
Republicans will have to go through additional procedural steps next
week for the process to be complete. And if all goes according to their
plan, the first tranche of Trump's nominees — undersecretaries and staff
positions for various agencies across the government as well as several
ambassadors — could be confirmed as soon as next Thursday.
The effort to change the rules comes as both parties have obstructed
each other’s nominees for years, and as both Republicans and Democrats
have advocated for speeding up the process when they are in the
majority.
Republicans have been pushing the rules change since early August, when
the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan
negotiations over the confirmation process and Trump told Senate
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” on social media.
Democrats have blocked more nominees than ever before as they have
struggled to find ways to oppose Trump and the GOP-dominated Congress,
and as their voters have pushed them to fight Republicans at every turn.
It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t
allowed at least some quick confirmations.
Schumer has said Democrats are delaying the nominations because Trump’s
nominees are “historically bad.”
“We’re supposed to debate and take votes on nominees, especially when
the executive branch is grossly breaking norms by sending us woefully
unqualified, unscrupulous, and in some cases, deeply dishonest
individuals for powerful and important positions,” Schumer said in a
floor speech following the votes.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., center, speaks during a
news conference after a policy luncheon at the CapitolTuesday, Sept.
9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Still, Democrats continued talks with Republicans into Thursday
afternoon as Republicans delayed their votes for almost five hours.
The two sides discussed a compromise that would have limited the
groups of nominees to 15 and shortened the length of debate.
But in the end, they were not able to agree. Democratic Sen. Brian
Schatz of Hawaii said they had been “achingly close to a deal.”
“But I am afraid my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have
run out of patience,” he added.
“The Senate is stuck,” said Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a
Republican who led the negotiations. “The challenge is this body has
just broken down trust.”
Having abandoned the bipartisan talks, Republicans advanced their
original plan to hold several procedural votes that allow them to
change the Senate rules for confirming presidential nominees. As
part of the vote series, they asked to “appeal the chair,” or change
the rules, which takes a simple majority vote.
“How much time is enough?” Thune, R-S.D., angrily asked Democrats as
he moved to resume votes. He said that the deal under discussion was
based on a Democratic proposal when President Joe Biden was in
office and that the two parties had already been negotiating for
weeks.
“We’ve got to fix this,” Thune said. “It’s time to vote.”
Schumer has told Republicans that they will “come to regret” their
action — echoing a similar warning from GOP Leader Mitch McConnell
to then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013, when Democrats
changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial
nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations. At the
time, Republicans were blocking President Barack Obama’s picks.
Republicans took the Senate majority a year later, and McConnell
eventually did the same for Supreme Court nominees in 2017 as
Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
“What Republicans have done is chip away at the Senate even more, to
give Donald Trump more power and to rubber stamp whomever he wants,
whenever he wants them, no questions asked,” Schumer said.
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