Senate goes nuclear and changes rules to bring Trump nominees through the chamber more quickly
The GOP plan, approved 51-48, indefinitely restored rules in place during the first few years of President Barack Obama's second term. Those rules had lapsed, allowing any senator to force 30 hours of debate on a nominee.
McConnell, no stranger to obstructionist tactics himself, said the situation had gotten out of hand, with the Senate taking 128 votes to end debate on Trump's nominees during his first two years in office, far more than under other presidents. "He started this whole thing that we've been wrestling with since 2003, cooked it up, convinced his colleagues to do it," McConnell said.
Schumer, however, supported this step in a 2013 vote orchestrated by then Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that eliminated the filibuster on Cabinet nominees and most judicial appointees. The maneuver allows the majority to change the rules on a party-line vote. Many Democrats, who benefited from prior rules changes under Obama, now say the GOP move will enable Trump and future presidents, so long as their party controls the Senate, to run roughshod over the Senate.
But other Democrats, McConnell said, indicated behind the scenes that they could support the rules change provided that it wouldn't take effect until the next administration.
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