Northeast South Dakota News

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed the press in Washington, D.C., raising concerns about what he described as significant delays and obstruction by Senate Democrats regarding presidential nominations.

Thune stated that the Senate has been dedicating much of its time to processing nominations but accused Democrats of employing unprecedented tactics to block or delay these confirmations. He noted, “If you look at just the historical precedent with regard to noms, we have never seen in history anything like what the Democrats are now doing.”

Comparing current confirmation rates to those from 2021, Thune said, “As of this date back in 2021, Joe Biden had gotten 46 nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent. Donald Trump has zero. Zero. Not a single one confirmed by voice or unanimous consent.” He further pointed out that even bipartisan nominees who receive substantial support on the Senate floor are facing obstacles: “So even the bipartisan noms are being blocked and delayed, so much so that the Democrats have been forcing me, when I file cloture, just to get a nominee considered on the floor, to go in and out of executive and legislative session.”

Thune criticized these actions as “dilatory tactics designed to block and obstruct the president and his agenda,” arguing that important government positions remain unfilled due to these delays. He emphasized that voters expect an administration’s chosen officials to be able to serve: “They voted for this president, and he has not had an opportunity to get the people that he wants to have man his administration get there to do their job.”

He warned that such practices could set a negative precedent for future Senate proceedings: “And clearly the Democrats are starting something and creating a precedent that is going to come back to haunt them.” Thune urged Democratic senators willing to cooperate on nominations to work towards resolving the impasse.

“There are a whole bunch of bipartisan nominees that are out there that are available for consideration right now,” Thune said. He attributed much of the resistance within Democratic ranks to party leadership rather than rank-and-file members: “There are Senate Democrats who actually do want to work on getting some noms through the process, but their leadership is blocking that.”

He concluded by calling for change: “So that’s got to change, and if it doesn’t, we’re going to be here a while.”