[Page S6564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. President, on a separate matter, Senate Republicans today are 
prepared to break the Democrat nomination blockade. Senate Republicans 
are determined to overcome Democrats' confirmation obstruction. Senate 
Republicans are prepared to restore the Senate to the way it is 
supposed to work. For two centuries, most Presidential nominees have 
sailed through this Chamber by voice vote and by unanimous consent. 
That was the gold standard for ``advise and consent.'' Senator Schumer 
and the Democrats abandoned it. Instead of deliberation, Senate 
Democrats chose unprecedented delay. That ends now.
  This year, Democrats have forced the Senate to waste 210 hours of 
pointless procedural theatrics. That is 210 hours not used for debating 
legislation--legislation to fight crime, to secure the border, to 
unleash American energy, and to grow the economy. Modern Presidents 
have over 1,000 positions requiring Senate confirmation, and as a 
result, only 12 percent of President Trump's team is today on the job. 
And it is because of obstruction; it is because of Democrat delays. 
They have delayed positions vital to America's safety, vital to our 
prosperity, and vital to our diplomacy around the world.
  These remain empty. Let me name a few. The Director of the National 
Counterintelligence and Security Center--that is the person responsible 
for protecting us from foreign spies--empty; the Under Secretary for 
Nuclear Security at the Energy Department, the person responsible for 
safeguarding our Nation's nuclear weapons: empty; Ambassadors to key 
NATO allies as war rages in Europe: empty; the inspector general at the 
Central Intelligence Agency: empty; the Deputy Trade Representative, as 
America negotiates historic trade deals, remains empty.
  Empty positions cannot keep our Nation safe. Empty positions invite 
Russia, China, Iran, North Korea--they invite them to test us. But that 
is what the Democrats have brought this country. The unquestionable, 
undeniable, irrefutable, inescapable facts are that this Democrat 
obstruction makes America less safe. That is where we are today.
  Let me point out what makes Democrat obstruction even more 
disgraceful. It destroys their own precedent. In May of 2001, 32 
nominees from President George W. Bush were confirmed in a single 
group. A few months later, 55 more were confirmed in the same way. In 
February of 2010, for President Barack Obama, 77 nominees were 
confirmed exactly the same way. In 2017, with President Trump then in 
the office, 65 nominees were confirmed on a single day.
  So what have we seen? Republican Presidents, Democrat Presidents, all 
with nominees confirmed in the same way. The Senate approved those 
nominees then as a long-established tradition in the Senate. That is 
the way the confirmation process is supposed to work. Just 4 years ago, 
with President Biden in the White House, 36 nominees were confirmed the 
exact same way.
  I want to just get back to 4 years ago: 36 nominees confirmed for 
President Biden. Who personally came to this Senate floor that day to 
ask for that unanimous consent? Well, it was the current minority 
leader, Chuck Schumer. He is the one who made the motion. He is the one 
who sought unanimous consent. And, of course, we agreed, and it was 
done that way.
  All these groups of nominees, from President Bush to President Biden, 
were confirmed by unanimous consent. But now that Donald Trump is 
President again, Senator Schumer calls the process, in his words, 
``beyond the pale''--of doing what he just asked to be done when 
President Biden was in the White House. When the minority leader claims 
this week Republicans are breaking the Senate norms, he is trying to 
rewrite history. Who is he trying to fool? For the past 25 years, the 
Senate has confirmed routine nominees together in groups. It has been 
done for Republican Presidents, Democrat Presidents; but not anymore--
not when President Trump was elected just this past year. Democrats are 
now trying to deny President Trump the team he needs in place and on 
the job to govern this Nation. But the American people elected 
President Trump to lead, not to watch his administration be held 
hostage by partisan politics.
  Today, Senate Republicans are going to return to the very practice 
that Democrats endorsed and followed until President Trump got elected. 
Let me remind the colleagues of that practice so they don't say: Well, 
they are going to speed things along. Every committee hearing and 
markup will still happen. Every FBI background check will still happen. 
Every ethics review will still happen. Every nominee will still appear 
before committees. Every nominee will still answer questions from 
Senators. And every nominee will still have a vote in a committee. 
Scrutiny of each and every nominee is going to continue.
  What comes to the end is what is Senator Schumer's reign of 
procedural terror. The Schumer confirmation shutdown ends today. And to 
my Democratic colleagues, let me say, if you disagree with our effort 
to get the Senate working again, it is up to you to explain to the 
American people why you have chosen to paralyze the Senate. You need to 
explain why you chose to stop doing the work that you were elected to 
do. Republicans are getting this Senate back to work on behalf of the 
American people, and beginning next week, the backlog of President 
Trump's nominees will be confirmed, and they will be put to work to get 
America back on track.