Majority Leader | Remark | Remarks | THE NEWSROOM | Repub...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMRemarks08.02.25Thune Previews Long Weekend for Senate Democrat Obstructionists“Democrats need to get serious about agreeing to a nominations package to confirm a number of outstanding nominations.” Click here to watch the video. WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor: Thune’s remarks below (as delivered): “Mr. President, yesterday afternoon, we reached an agreement with Democrats on an appropriations package. “And I’m pleased to report that as of last night, we’ve passed three of the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills – Military Construction … and Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch, and Agriculture. “Those were the three appropriation bills that we were able to pass last night. “I would say, it is a very good start on appropriations – and a striking contrast, I might add, to last year, when the Democrat leader failed to bring a single appropriations bill to the floor for a vote, notwithstanding the fact that 11 of the 12 had passed out of the Appropriations Committee with big, bipartisan margins. “And I want to thank Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Collins, as well as Senators Hoeven, Boozman, and Mullin. “I also want to thank Senator Moran, who has done outstanding work on the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill. “And that would have passed last night had it not been for the opposition of a single Democrat senator. “Thanks are due to all the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has now reported out eight – eight – of the twelve fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. “The Senate is currently in its best place on appropriations in years, and I’m grateful for all those who worked cooperatively and in good faith to make last night’s votes happen. “It is good, Mr. President, to have the Senate back on a regular-order track on appropriations, and I will continue to work for a regular order process as we continue. “And I hope that Democrats will join us in that effort. “It was disturbing to hear the Democrat leader threaten to shut down the government in his July 8 Dear Colleague letter. “And I hope, Mr. President – I really hope – that Democrats will not embrace that position but will continue to work with Republicans to fund the government. “As I said, we are in the best place we’ve been in years, but we have a lot of work to do. “And I hope that we’ll be able to continue the good work we began last night with continued bipartisan cooperation. “Now, Mr. President, I wish I had more good news, or better news, to offer this morning on the nominations front. “I wish I could say that we had also reached an agreement on a nominations package yesterday. “But unfortunately Democrats continue to engage in their historic obstruction. “Mr. President, ‘[f]or decades, Democrats and Republicans have regularly cooperated to swiftly confirm the many, many individuals selected by each President to serve in their Administration. “‘Regardless of the party in the White House, both sides have long agreed that a President deserves to have his or her Administration in place, quickly. “‘That doesn’t mean we don’t disagree. But it does mean when nominees are held up, opposed, or blocked—it’s for a legitimate purpose, not for leverage in partisan games, to score political points at the expense of public safety.’ “Now, let me repeat that last line, Mr. President: “‘But it does mean when nominees are held up, opposed, or blocked—it’s for a legitimate purpose, not for leverage in partisan games, to score political points at the expense of public safety.’ “Now, interestingly enough, Mr. President, those last lines aren’t mine. “Those are the words of the Democrat leader just three short years ago. “And I wish – I truly wish – it was the philosophy the Democrat leader and his party still espoused today. “But instead they have embraced a historic level of obstruction – slow-walking every single one of President Trump’s civilian nominees, including nominees who have ultimately received substantial Democrat support. “That is the very definition of the partisan games the Democrat leader deplored just a few short years ago. “And so, just to put a fine point on that, Mr. President, I want to show you where we are relative to history with regard to nominations. “As you can see, going back to the presidency of George H.W. Bush – ‘41,’ as he is affectionately described by many – 98 percent of all the nominees were confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent. “That was also true of a Democrat president, Bill Clinton. “George W. Bush ‘43’ had 90 percent of his nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent. “And President Obama – so we went Republican, back to Democrat – also had 90 percent of his nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent. “That started to drop off in the first Trump administration down to 65 percent, dropped down to 57 percent during the Biden administration. “But what’s really striking, Mr. President, is here we are six months into – more than that, really now – into this current administration, and that right there: A big fat zero is what the Democrats have allowed in terms of nominee either confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent. “Now, under any circumstance, Mr. President – and I understand there are strong disagreements with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, don’t like the president, all that. “There’s certainly that element, but this is historic and unprecedented obstruction when it comes to allowing someone who has been elected by the people of this country in a fairly significant, I would argue, mandate, an election, to get their person in place to do the jobs that the American people elected that president, President Trump, to do. “And so you cannot, under any circumstance, defend that … “And these numbers are not moving in the right direction, which is why I would argue we’ve got to change the process by which we do this. “Otherwise, we’re going to continue to deteriorate to where any president that comes in here is going to be very, very hard-pressed to do the job the American people elected him to do. “So, but really, that one right there, that big fat zero, sticks out in a very big and significant way. “And I wonder how Democrats’ continued determination to slow-walk President Trump’s nominees will play with the voters – who, after all, elected President Trump, with the thought that he’d be able to fill up his administration. “Mr. President, Democrats need to get serious about agreeing to a nominations package to confirm a number of outstanding nominations. “And I would tell you – and they are well aware of this – that a lot of the nominees on the current backlog are nominees who have bipartisan support. “In some cases, broad bipartisan support, multiple Democrats voting for these nominees coming out of the committee. “There are a whole bunch of those that are backed up [in] this backlog. “And so, Mr. President, I sincerely hope that they will change their tune and decide to work with this administration to make that happen. “Otherwise, I mean, I’ve said this before, and I think it’s true. “I mean, we are setting records around here for hours in session. “We are setting records around here for number of votes cast. “I mean, not by a little – by a lot, relative to previous senates. “And a lot of it has to do with that statistic I just pointed out. “It’s time for that to change, Mr. President, and we’re not asking a lot. “We’re just simply saying, treat this president, at least on some level, in the way that previous presidents, both Democrats and Republican presidents, have been treated in the past by both Republican and Democrat Senates.”Related Issues: NominationsPrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
