Senate Republicans on Thursday confirmed 48 of President Trump’s executive branch nominees, using a new rules change that allows batch confirmations despite Democratic filibusters.
The 51–47 vote approved more than a quarter of the 173 nominees awaiting action after clearing committee. The confirmations included under secretaries and assistant administrators across the Defense, Energy, Interior, and Labor Departments.
Among them was former Rep. Brandon Williams of New York, confirmed as Energy undersecretary for nuclear security. Eight nominees were approved to ambassador-level posts, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., who will serve in Greece, and Callista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was confirmed for Switzerland after previously serving as ambassador to the Holy See.
Republicans said they plan to advance another slate of nominees soon, aiming to clear the backlog by mid-October. Democrats have filibustered all of Trump’s civilian nominees except Secretary of State Marco Rubio, forcing procedural delays on each individual confirmation until this week’s rule change, also called the “nuclear option.”
Under the rules change adopted last week, Republicans can now confirm groups of sub-Cabinet nominees with a simple majority, rather than holding separate votes to break Democratic filibusters on each pick.
GOP leaders said the move was necessary because Democrats have blocked confirmations at a pace unprecedented in modern presidencies, including Trump’s first term.
Democrats have refused to allow any of Trump’s civilian nominees — even those with bipartisan backing — to be approved by unanimous consent or voice vote, the process traditionally used to quickly confirm lower-level positions, the Washington Times reported.
“Republicans have fixed a broken process and restored the Senate precedent that applied to previous presidents – and that is allowing … a majority of a president’s nominees to be confirmed expeditiously,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a floor speech Thursday ahead of the vote.