Kerby Anderson

One of the reasons Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell postponed the August recess was due to “the backlog of critical nominations” he said “that have been mindlessly stalled by Democrats.” Of course, nearly every administration and party in power complains at some time about the slow process of confirming nominations. But what is happening right now is unprecedented.

During the first six months of President Trump’s administration, he made 257 nominations to important governmental position in his administration and in the federal judiciary. But the Senate has only confirmed 55 of those 257 nominations. To put that in perspective, President Obama had 206 nominations confirmed in the first six months of his administration.

You see a similar pattern with cabinet secretaries. At the end of January, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both had 13 confirmed. Barack Obama had 10 confirmed. By contrast, Donald Trump only had 3 confirmed.

Democratic obstruction in the Senate is the reason for the fact that so many nominees are still waiting for confirmation. Democrats demand a cloture vote for every nominee, no matter how minor a concern might be. This means a two-day waiting period, and another 30 hours of debate.

Another strategy is to withhold a “blue slip” to the Judiciary Committee. This effectively blocks any judicial nominee from the Senator’s home state. The blue slip tradition was developed to allow Senators to use their home-state knowledge about a judge to better inform the White House. It is a courtesy, but is being abused by Democrats to prevent a vote on qualified nominees to the federal judiciary.

It is time for the leadership in the Senate to stop the nomination blockade and get on with the important task of governing and placing qualified men and women in administrative posts and the judiciary.