00:00The Majority Leader.
00:02I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended.
00:08Without objection.
00:09Mr. President, it's been a very busy year here in the United States Senate.
00:13From confirming President Trump's nominees to repealing burdensome Biden administration regulations,
00:19to passing the one big beautiful bill to prevent a massive tax hike on hardworking Americans,
00:24Republicans have been hard at work delivering on the mandate we receive from the American people.
00:29The Senate has taken, so far, 499 votes this year, more than in any Congress at this point in the last 35-plus years.
00:43In fact, we've taken more votes in 2025 already, in eight months, than the Senate has taken in a full 12 months for most,
00:53all but two of the past 36 years.
00:56But we have a lot more work to do, and we're going to get it done.
01:02That starts this week with consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act,
01:06one of the most important pieces of legislation that we consider every year.
01:10That will be followed by continued appropriations work so that we can get the government funded by the September 30th deadline.
01:17We've already done some good work on appropriations.
01:20In fact, for the first time in years, we went into August having passed three of the 12 appropriations bills.
01:28The last time that happened, a single appropriations bill passed before the August break was 2017.
01:35But needless to say, there's a lot more to do.
01:39And I hope, Mr. President, that our Democrat colleagues will resist the calls from within for a shutdown and work with us to fund the government.
01:48Ms. President, along with the National Defense Authorization Act and funding the government,
01:54we have another important task to accomplish in the coming weeks.
01:59And that is making major headway on confirming more of President Trump's nominees.
02:04Thanks to a lot of hours here in the Senate to overcome Democrat obstruction,
02:09we went into August having confirmed 135 of the President's civilian nominees.
02:14More than had been confirmed by this point in his first term.
02:19But there are a lot more nominees to go.
02:24And I'm here to tell my Democrat colleagues that their historic obstruction cannot continue.
02:32Ms. President, when voters elect a President, that comes with certain expectations.
02:36One of which is that a President will be able to fill up his or her administration with his or her nominees.
02:44And historically, the Senate has reflected that by confirming most of a President's civilian nominees by unanimous consent or voice vote.
02:55Which means without obstruction, blocking.
03:00President George H.W. Bush had 98% of his civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote here in the Senate.
03:12So did President Clinton.
03:15President George W. Bush and President Obama both had 90% of their civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.
03:28But things changed during the first Trump administration.
03:31Democrats started obstructing nominees who would previously have been confirmed without a drawn-out process.
03:40But even so, both President Trump and his first administration and President Biden had more than half of their civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.
03:56Without a long, drawn-out process.
03:59We'll fast forward to 2025.
04:03As of today, September the 2nd, President Trump has not had a single one, single one of his civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.
04:19Not a single one, Mr. President.
04:21By this point in his administration, President Biden had had 76.
04:2676.
04:27Confirmed.
04:28Without dragging it out, delaying and blocking and obstructing.
04:34So when I say that President Trump's nominees have faced a historic level of obstruction, Mr. President, I'm not being political or hyperbolic.
04:44I am doing nothing more than stating the bare facts.
04:51Between the calendar and committees, we currently have nominees pending for a total of 302 civilian positions.
05:0195% of those positions, 95% were confirmed by voice vote at least once during the previous three incoming administrations.
05:14And yet Democrats seem unwilling to expedite consideration for a single one.
05:20Mr. President, this cannot continue.
05:23The American people elected President Trump.
05:27And like any president, he deserves to be able to fill up his administration.
05:34In fact, we owe the voters nothing less.
05:39Now, that doesn't mean rubber stamping every nominee, but it does mean an end to the ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous, delays on every nomination.
05:53Including on nominations that Democrats ended up supporting in significant numbers.
05:58And I say that, Mr. President, supporting in significant numbers, because let's be clear here.
06:05The Democrat leader might like people to think Democrats are holding up all these nominees because they are, in his words, historically bad.
06:15But in fact, at least some Democrats have ultimately voted in favor of many of these nominations.
06:2161 out of the 135 civilian nominees confirmed received at least one Democrat vote on final confirmation.
06:29And fully half of the civilian nominees currently on the calendar were reported out of committee with bipartisan support.
06:38Democrats aren't holding up nominations to minor administration positions out of principled opposition.
06:46They're holding them up because they don't like President Trump.
06:52Well, that's not a good reason, Mr. President.
06:56And Democrats' obstruction is not only preventing voters from getting the administration they elected.
07:02It's also slowing down the essential business of the United States Senate.
07:07Over August, Mr. President, my colleagues and I discussed various ways of addressing this problem and expediting confirmations.
07:15And there are a lot of options on the table, none of which, I might add, would be necessary if the Senate Democrats treated this President,
07:28that Republican and Democrat Senates have treated Republican and Democrat Presidents for all of American history.
07:40In fact, Mr. President, you have to go back a long ways in the annals of history to find a time.
07:46In fact, we went back as far as the Hoover administration, as far back, I think, as we could find records and data,
07:56to find a president who didn't have at least one of his nominees confirmed here in the Senate by unanimous consent at this point in their administration.
08:13In fact, the majority of presidential confirmations were conducted on a bipartisan basis for a long time here in the Senate.
08:21And there's no reason we couldn't go back to that right now.
08:26All it takes is a little behavioral change and a willingness to acknowledge President Trump won an election,
08:33the American people voted for him, and they expect him to be able to populate his administration with the people
08:40that he wants to serve in many of these positions.
08:46But if Democrats continue to obstruct, if they continue to drag out confirmation of every single one of the nominations of a duly elected president,
08:59if they continue to slow the Senate's business to such a drastic degree,
09:05then we're going to have to take steps to get this process back on a reasonable footing.
09:13This is not sustainable, Mr. President.
09:17You can't run a government this way.
09:19It's never been done before.
09:21Ever.
09:22Ever.
09:24In history.
09:26This is not a sustainable business model.
09:31In one way or the other, it's going to have to get fixed.
09:35The Democrats can play ball the way every Democrat and Republican Senate have,
09:44going back as far as we can find in the annals of history,
09:48or things are going to have to change around here.
09:51It's as simple as that.
09:53And the ball, I would say, Mr. President, is in the Democrats' court.
09:58Mr. President, I yield the floor.
10:01I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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