WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees at once, voting for the first time under new rules to begin clearing a backlog of executive branch positions that had been delayed by Democrats.

Frustrated by the stalling tactics, Senate Republicans moved last week to make it easier to confirm large groups of lower-level, non-judicial nominations. Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor.

The new rules allow Senate Republicans to move multiple nominees with a simple majority vote — a process that would have previously been blocked with just one objection. The rules don’t apply to judicial nominations or high-level Cabinet posts.

“Republicans have fixed a broken process,” Thune said ahead of the vote.

The Senate voted 51-47 to confirm the four dozen nominees. Thune said that those confirmed on Thursday had all received bipartisan votes in committee, including deputy secretaries for the Departments of Defense, Interior, Energy and others.

Among the confirmed are Jonathan Morrison, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Kimberly Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump’s 2020 campaign and was once engaged to Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    3 hours ago

    No, they should have used their Constitutional powers to follow their oath to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC. But they didn’t.

    Following the Jan 6 Insurrection, Biden would have been well within his Constitutional rights and responsibilities to have Trump and his henchmen rounded up as National Security threats the moment he was Inaugurated. They should have been sent to Guantanamo Bay for extensive interrogation into their nefarious dealings with Russia, and their corruption.

    Sure, the MAGA following would have gone nuts, giving the a Biden administration the excuse to crush them mercilessly, and declare them a terrorist hate group.

    THEN the Stolen Document scheme would have come to light, and if the Dems were playing Hard Ball like they should have, they could have combined that with his Insurrection, and used that to create such public outrage against the MAGA Party, that it would be effectively dead forever.

    But he literally did NOTHING, including pressure his REPUBLICAN AG into acting more decisively. They had managed to wrest control back from the MAGAs, but instead of making sure they never succeed again, they just created a political environment that enabled and even ENCOURAGED their comeback.

    After his amazing success with the simultaneous Covid Vax program, and his post-Covid Economic Stimulation program, Biden would have been considered in the top 15 presidents, but his greatest accomplishments are overshadowed by his weakness in defending America, and avoiding crushing the treasonous MAGA movement, and allowing it to grow stronger, and rise AGAIN. For that he will be forever in the bottom 15 of presidents, the way the pre-Civil War presidents are reviled for their lack of action on preventing, or even encouraging the Civil War. Biden now joins them.