McConnell to Deploy 'Nuclear Option' for Lower-Level Nominations Next Week

The so-called “nuclear option” will likely deployed next week for the third time in six years, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) taking a procedural step on Thursday to set up a vote next on a proposal that would shorten debate for lower-level nominations to posts in the executive and judicial branches.

McConnell filed a cloture motion that could be considered as early as Tuesday, which would likely precede a vote on adopting the resolution Wednesday.

The resolution (S.Res. 50), offered by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), would shorten post-cloture debate on nominations to district courts and lower tier executive branch positions (such as a deputy assistant secretary) from a maximum of 30 hours to a limit of two hours. It wouldn’t apply to nominations to the Supreme Court, appeals courts, or Cabinet-level executive branch positions.

The proposal is similar to a deal to shorten debate on lower level nominations that was reached with 78 votes in 2013 when Democrats held the majority, but that change only lasted for the duration of the 113th Congress.

Republicans began considering going nuclear during the last Congress in response to what they deemed obstructionism by Democrats, who increased the use of cloture motions for lower tier Trump administration nominees relative to previous administrations.

Democrats have expressed opposition to the GOP’s proposed change, decrying the erosion of the Senate’s tradition. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested that Democrats would consider a compromise to shorten debate on nominees in exchange for restoration of the “blue slip” tradition, which held that a judicial nominee could only advance if their home state senators signaled support by returning a blue slip.

Despite that, McConnell hopes to have bipartisan support for the effort to permanently change Senate rules regarding the nominations, which would require 67 votes, but he can alter the Senate’s precedent with only a simple majority vote (which could later be undone by a simple majority). The latter path prevailed the last two times the Senate went nuclear:

• In 2017, McConnell and Republicans voted along party-lines to lower the number of votes required to “invoke cloture” (ie limit debate) on Supreme Court nominations from a three-fifths majority to a simple majority.
• In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Democrats voted along party-lines to lower the number of votes required to invoke cloture for all non-Supreme Court nominations to executive and judicial branch positions from a three-fifths majority to simple majority.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons)