Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford wants to bring back a Senate rule last used in 2015 to get through a long list of President Trump’s nominees.
Lankford wants post-cloture debate limited to two hours for district court judges; 30 hours for circuit court, Supreme Court or cabinet nominations; and eight hours for everyone else.
Currently, all nominations get 30 hours of post-cloture debate.
"We've got to get on to budget. We've got to get on to Children's Health Insurance Program. We've got to get on to intelligence issues. We've got to get on to immigration. We've got to get on to infrastructure," Lankford said. "We've got to get on to a lot of other things, but we're stuck debating people. That should be an easy one for us."
Lankford's remarks came after the Senate got through four district court nominations during all of last week.
Lankford told his Senate colleagues Democrats forced Republicans to invoke cloture — that is, move to a final vote — 46 times last year.
"What was from 1967 to 2012, before the total number, Democrats did to Republicans in one year," Lankford said.
President Obama, however, saw 150 nominees subject to cloture votes in 2013, his first year after re-election.
Lankford said the Senate should also reconsider how it handles pending nominations, which are returned to the White House at the end of the year. Trump got a lot back, including one for Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine to be the new NASA administrator.
"Bill Clinton, 13; George [W.] Bush, two; President Obama, eight; President Trump, 90," Lankford said, listing the number of nominations each got back after his first year.
Leading Democrats have said Trump picked several nominees unqualified for their positions. A Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service database says the Trump administration has not nominated anyone for 252 out of 633 key positions requiring Senate confirmation.
