Facebook Twitter K1-TEXT Email Print

News

Government

Posted: Feb 06, 2019 2:08 PMUpdated: Feb 06, 2019 2:17 PM

Sen. Lankford Introduces Senate Rules Resolution

Share on RSS

 

Garrett Giles

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford and Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Roy Blunt introduced a resolution to update the Senate rules for most Senate-confirmed nominees. The resolution would reduce the 30 hours of post-cloture debate time to two hours for most nominees, including many Executive Branch nominees and district court judges. The resolution builds on a standing order introduced by former Majority Leader Harry Reid that was in place during the 113th Congress.

In the 114th Congress, with a Democratic president and Republican-controlled Senate, cloture was filed on zero judges and two Executive Branch nominations. However, in the last two years, nominees faced cloture votes at an unprecedented rate. Cloture was filed on 148 of President Trump’s nominees in the 115th Congress, and the Senate held cloture votes on 127 of them.

Further, once cloture is filed, the current rules of the Senate require at least one full “intervening day” plus up to 30 hours of additional debate after cloture is invoked, which has slowed nominations to a glacial pace in the Senate.


« Back to News