Senate Republicans on Thursday confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump's nominees, a week after changing the chamber's rules to counter Democrat delays.
"Republicans have fixed a broken process," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said ahead of the vote.
Among the confirmed are Jonathan Morrison, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Kimberly Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump's 2020 campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said Democrats are delaying the nominations because Trump's nominees are "historically bad." And he told Republicans that they will "come to regret" their action — echoing a similar warning from former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013, when Democrats changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations. At the time, Republicans were blocking President Barack Obama's picks.
"What Republicans have done is chip away at the Senate even more, to give Donald Trump more power and to rubber stamp whomever he wants, whenever he wants them, no questions asked," Schumer said last week.
Thune promised more confirmations to come.
"And we'll ensure that President Trump's administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.