The High Price of Democrat Obstruction

Senator James Lankford went to the Senate floor and laid out the case against the unprecedented Democrat Obstruction of President Trump’s nominees.  We are not talking high profile nominees like Supreme Court Justices or Cabinet Secretaries, but basically all the ones appointed by the President that need to be confirmed by the Senate.

First, Senator Lankford laid out the problem:

Now, what's happened? Remember I argued that we had 13, 14, 15 people held up in cloture in a year. This year so far there have been 64 nominations held up in a cloture vote. That is 64 days in the Senate we could do nothing else but sit here in waiting. Now it wasn't for debate. It may sound like it's being held for 30 hours of debate during that time period. Debate normally didn't happen. Most of the time this chamber was just empty. It was just 30 hours were demanded to shut down the body as a whole, 64 in this year. What has brought us? It's brought us more animosity. It's brought us more division and more frustration.

This is not just some petty political game.  It has the effect of undermining the government.

In the meantime, we've got agencies all over this town that can't answer a question because the bureaucrats are waiting on a Senate-confirmed individual to be able to lead that, to be the secretary, under secretary, deputy secretary, whatever the task may be, the counsel for that particular agency. So they sit and wait. So our constituents that are trying to get a permit in certain places or trying to get an answer or trying to get disaster relief, all that they can say in the office is we can't do that until we get a Senate-confirmed position in this place, but we can't get Senate confirmed positions in place until my democratic colleagues will actually allow individuals to actually come up and be debated on.

This dysfunction of the Senate affects the entire country and Senator Lankford calls for bipartisan efforts in the Senate to fix these problems which are damaging the entire nation.

I believe the Senate is moving gridlock from here on this Capitol Hill all across the city and across the nation. The reason for that is how we do nominations and the length of time on nominations. It’s time for the Senate to fix the Senate’s rules.

Democrat Obstruction Is So Bad, They Even Obstruct Former Obama Nominees Re-Nominated by President Trump

People often ask how bad is the Senate confirmation process? It is not that different from the past they say.  Yesterday, a prime example happened of how wrong and how ridiculous the Senate Democrat obstruction has become.  As Senator James Lankford (R-OK) stated on the Senate Floor (emphasis ours):

For the next few hours we should vote on. We just finish a cloture vote to actually start 30 hours of debate, which in the past, we wouldn't have had 30 hours of debate for a district court nominee, especially a district court nominee like this. This would have been something that would have been done by consent.  We would have a vote on this individual rather than burning up 30 hours of time on debate on a single individual that just passed a cloture vote 79 to 18. . . . This is not a controversial nominee. 

Let me introduce you a little bit to Scott Palk.  He's been pending since June the 15th to get a vote on this floor because of the ongoing delays for each nominee as we go through the process. Why do I say Scott Palk is not a controversial nominee?  It is not just the fact that he just passed this cloture vote 79 to 18. Scott Palk, if you remember his name in this body, was also a nominee of President Obama for the Western [District] Court of Oklahoma. He's now a nominee from President Trump as a nominee for the Western District Court of Oklahoma. There may be five things total that President Obama and President Trump agree on. Scott Palk is one of those five. . . . 

No one understands why someone that President Obama nominated and President Trump nominated has to take up 30 hours of time on the floor on debate. -- When no one will really even debate him. And it's certain what the outcome will be.

This is not an election year where the Leahy “Rule” to obstruct nominees is potentially relevant.  This is the FIRST year of President Trump’s administration. 

Leader Mitch McConnell is putting his foot down against Senate Democrat Obstruction:

Despite Democrats making the #Senate waste time on procedural cloture votes for @POTUS' judicial nominees, we will confirm them.

— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) October 26, 2017

The nominees that McConnell has called for a vote next week include Allison Eid for the 10th Circuit, Stephanos Bibas for the 3rd Circuit, Joan Larsen for the 6th Circuit, and Amy Coney Barrett for the 7th Circuit. 

Leader McConnell’s complete remarks are here.  Thank you Senator Lankford, Leader McConnell, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley for standing up to Democrat obstruction.