WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed more than 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees in a single vote on Tuesday, marking the second time Republicans have approved candidates en masse for the Trump administration after changing congressional rules last month.
Senators voted along party lines to confirm a total of 108 nominees, allowing Republicans to quickly chip away at a backlog that Democrats have created in protest of Trump’s policies. The clustered nominee process will help Republicans greenlight dozens of Trump’s candidates at a record pace, saving weeks of votes and debate time.
Although the nominees were confirmed in partisan votes, Thune defended the bloc process by noting that many of the nominees had received bipartisan support when they were advanced by individual committees.
Senate Republicans managed to change longstanding procedural rules after initiating a process colloquially known as “going nuclear” last month. The chamber approved its first tranche of nominees in mid-September, which included 48 nominees.
The so-called nuclear option is a rarely used maneuver that allows the majority party to change rules with only a simple majority vote rather than the typical requirement of overcoming a filibuster with two-thirds approval. The process has not been invoked since 2019, but now sets a precedent for Republicans as they scramble to approve more than 100 judges who have been waiting at a standstill due to pushback from Democrats.
The so-called “nuclear option” is a veiled reference to nuclear weapons, often considered the most extreme option in any battle. In the same sense, going nuclear in the Senate has the risk of blowing up the chamber.
The nuclear option can be invoked by any senator when they raise a point of order on the Senate floor. At that point, the presiding senator would overrule the point of order because it violates current chamber rules — prompting an appeal that can be overturned with only a simple majority vote.
The bloc on Tuesday is the biggest group of nominees so far to be confirmed at once.