Senator David Perdue: Speed Up The Confirmation Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee yesterday took action to speed up debate time on executive and judicial nominees. U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) joined Senator James Lankford (R-OK) in supporting this effort to eliminate the gridlock stalling confirmations.

“For the last year, Democrats have done all they can to draw out the nominations process in order to delay the Senate from working on real issues. At this rate, President Trump will never have a full team in place. These delays are petty, and the American people have had enough. The Senate should be focused on tackling this debt crisis, fixing Congress’ broken budget process, and funding the government before the September 30 deadline.

“Last August, we pushed to have the Senate stay in session longer and more nominees were confirmed during those two weeks than had been confirmed all year. The United States Senate should start working around the clock to get through as many confirmations as possible and change the existing rules on confirming nominees. James Lankford has a plan in the Senate to cut the 30 hours of debate on most nominees to 8 hours. I support this plan. Every single Democrat in the Senate today, who was also here in 2013, supported this plan and they should again now. This will speed up the confirmation process and allow us to focus on the results the American people sent us here to deliver.”

Background

• The Trump Administration has fewer nominations confirmed than the last four administrations at this point.
• Senate Democrats have forced three times as many cloture votes on President Trump’s nominees than the last four presidents combined.
• 66 of the Trump Administration’s nominees were returned at the end of 2017, compared to just five in former President Obama’s first year.
• On average, it takes 85 days for one of President Trump’s nominees to be confirmed.
• As of today, there are currently 139 executive, 57 district court, and 10 circuit court nominations pending.
• For the last year, Senator Perdue has fought to end this historic obstruction. He and nine other senators pushed to cancel the August recess and turn the Senate on 24/7.