08.23.18

McConnell Discusses Senate Work To Be Completed By Labor Day

‘This week, we will conclude the hugely important appropriations bills before us. And after that, we will turn to the 17 nominees on whom I filed cloture yesterday… None are particularly controversial. All are qualified. No more obstruction, no more delays - it’s time to confirm them all. And the Senate will continue to work right through August until every one of them is confirmed.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the need to confirm more of the president’s well-qualified nominees:  

“Well, this continues to be a productive August here in the United States Senate. We reconvened this month because too much of the American people’s business remained outstanding. Too many legislative priorities unfinished. Too many uncontroversial, completely qualified nominees left languishing on the executive calendar due to partisan obstruction and delays.

“Coming back to work this August was not a conventional decision. But of course, there’s nothing conventional about the historic level of obstruction which Senate Democrats have systematically visited upon this administration’s nominees, even for critical positions. President Trump’s nominees have already been subjected to more than four times as many cloture votes as the nominees of his six most recent predecessors combined in their first two years. Twenty-four cloture votes on nominations in the first two years of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama all put together. And for President Trump? One hundred and ten – and counting.

“So we returned to work to pass more legislation and to confirm more nominees. That’s just what we’ve done, and it’s just what we’ll continue to do. This week, we will conclude the hugely important appropriations bills before us. And after that, we will turn to the 17 nominees on whom I filed cloture yesterday. They’re a variety of impressive men and women whom the president has asked to serve in the judiciary and the executive branch. None are particularly controversial. All are qualified. No more obstruction, no more delays – it’s time to confirm them all. And the Senate will continue to work right through August until every one of them is confirmed.”

Related Issues: Nominations, Senate Democrats