REPORT: Senate Delays August Recess To Confirm Trump Nominees

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is reportedly delaying the upper chamber’s August recess in an effort to clear the massive backlog of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.

According to a report from Just The News, Thune said he is keeping the Senate in session at least over the weekend to confirm outstanding nominees after previous reports suggested that the chamber would be beginning a long recess on Saturday.

“Thune said he would keep the Senate in session at least this weekend to work on the confirmations and to negotiate with Democrats to speed up consideration of dozens of nominees,” the outlet reported. “However, he said some of the negotiations will be done between the White House and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.”

Senate Republicans worked hard on Friday to confirm or advance low-level nominees that would normally be approved quickly. But at least 150 nominees still need to be confirmed, including many judicial nominees, such as acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba.

President Trump previously put Senate Republicans, particularly Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), on notice over the slow pace of confirmations.

“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the ‘Blue Slip’ problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen,” the president posted on Truth Social, adding that Senate Democrats are determined to block any and all nominees.

“Put simply, the President of the United States will never be permitted to appoint the person of his choice because of an ancient, and probably Unconstitutional, “CUSTOM,” that if you have, even one person in the opposite Party serving in the U.S. Senate, he/she must give consent, thereby completely stopping the opposite Party’s Nomination,” Trump continued.

“The only way to beat this Hoax is to appoint a Democrat or, a weak and ineffective Republican. Therefore, I would never be able to appoint Great Judges or U.S. Attorneys in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places, where there is, coincidentally, the highest level of crime and corruption — The places where fantastic people are most needed!”

He then called on Senator Grassley to “step up,” pointing to previous instances under the Biden Administration when the Senate custom was set aside.

At the time of the post, just one Article III judge had been confirmed by the Senate, a historically slow pace. For comparison, former President Barack Obama had 26 nominees confirmed by the same time in his first term.

The pace has picked up significantly since then, however, as the chamber has scheduled a number of hearings and advanced other nominations. This includes the confirmation of Emil Bove, a former personal attorney of President Trump’s, to a federal appeals court.