Blunt Applauds Rules Committee Passage of Resolution to Improve the Confirmation Process

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, today applauded committee passage of S. Res. 355, legislation introduced by Senator James Lankford (Okla.) to expedite the confirmation process for executive and judicial nominees.

“Senate Democrats’ needless delays in the confirmation process are wasting hours of time we should be using to focus on the big issues facing our nation,” said Blunt. “President Trump’s nominees have faced 88 cloture votes, compared to just 24 for the previous six presidents combined. Only a fraction of the post-cloture time is used to debate each nominee, and many are ultimately confirmed with overwhelming bipartisan support. This is nothing more than obstruction for the sake of obstruction. The committee has taken an important step to expedite the confirmation process, and I urge all of our Senate colleagues to support this legislation.”

S. Res. 355 would reduce debate time for most executive branch nominees from 30 hours down to eight hours, and district court nominees from 30 hours to two hours. The resolution maintains the 30 hours of post-cloture debate time for Supreme Court, Circuit Court, and Cabinet-level nominees. S. Res. 355 would make permanent the same framework the Senate approved in 2013, by a vote of 78-16, to speed the confirmation of President Obama’s nominees. The text of the resolution is available here.

Click here for video of Blunt’s opening remarks at today’s markup. 

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