Senate GOP Readies Battering Ram Against Dems’ Confirmation Blockade

WASHINGTON—Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and his Republican colleagues are sick and tired of Democrats constantly delaying confirmation of President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive appointments.

And they aren’t going to take it anymore. Maybe.

The issue took on new urgency last month when 376 Trump nominations were returned to the White House, not due to Senate rejection, but because “the world’s greatest deliberative body” never voted them up or down.

As a result, hundreds of key positions throughout the federal government remain vacant or are being filled on an acting basis by lower-level officials. Important decisions aren’t made, needed new initiatives are stalled, and the routine flow of the public’s business is seriously disrupted.

Among the returned nominations in December were the general counsel for the Department of the Navy, the inspector general of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, governors for the U.S. Postal Service, an assistant secretary of Commerce, and ambassadors to Morocco and Colombia.

Lankford took the Senate floor earlier this week and warned his colleagues that, “[if] we don’t resolve this now and allow this president to be able to function with his nominees, as any president in the past has, then this is going to just keep going. And it will hurt the long-term functioning of our government.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senate-gop-readies-battering-ram-against-dems-confirmation-blockade_2786537.html