On September 17, 2025, the United States Senate, led by Majority Leader John Thune, ushered in a historic and contentious change to its rules, dramatically altering the way presidential nominees are confirmed. In a move that capped weeks of political wrangling and procedural brinkmanship, Senate Republicans voted to lower the threshold for confirming blocs of President Donald Trump's subcabinet nominees from a 60-vote supermajority to a simple majority. The decision, which came after months of gridlock and accusations of unprecedented obstruction, has sparked fierce debate over the future of the Senate’s institutional norms and the balance of power between parties.
For months, President Trump’s nominees for key executive positions languished in the Senate, with not a single civilian nominee confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent—a first in American history, as reported by Breitbart News. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Senate Democrats had insisted on individual consideration for every nominee, consuming valuable floor time and effectively stalling the administration’s efforts to fill government posts. Thune, frustrated by what he described as a “Democrat logjam,” moved decisively to break the impasse.
“President Trump deserves to have his team members in place so he can enact his agenda which the American people voted for last November,” Thune told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview. “He’s the only president on record in history to not have a single civilian nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent at this point in his presidency. So the Democrats’ long, unprecedented blockade has gone on for way too long and it’s going to end soon and we intend to start that this week.”
The Senate’s procedural transformation unfolded in two dramatic votes on September 17. First, senators voted 47-52 to reduce the number of votes needed to invoke cloture on an executive resolution from 60 to a simple majority. Then, in a 52-47 vote, they invoked cloture on the resolution itself, starting the clock for a floor vote on the nominees. The first group up for confirmation: 48 nominees, all of whom had secured bipartisan support in committee, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
Majority Whip John Barrasso, speaking on the Senate floor, declared, “There is a role in the Senate for advice and consent, but Senate Democrats have done everything you can think of to prevent President Trump from putting his team in place. It needs to get these people on the job.” Barrasso added, “We’re not going to stop there, though. Over 100 more nominees will be ready for confirmation by the end of this week.”
The move was not without controversy. Democrats, led by Schumer, decried the rule change as a dangerous erosion of the Senate’s constitutional role. “The rule change further weakened the Senate and turned the chamber into a conveyor belt for unqualified Trump nominees,” Schumer argued, as reported by Roll Call. Thune, however, countered that Democrats were jeopardizing national security by blocking critical appointments for nearly nine months since Trump began his second term. “These are key positions that need to be filled, and in the past they would have been filled by unanimous consent because everybody recognized that a president who wins is a duly elected president and won a huge mandate in an election and deserves to have their team in place,” Thune said.
This latest maneuver is only the most recent in a series of changes to Senate procedure under Thune’s leadership. Earlier in 2025, Thune had already sidestepped the filibuster to block California’s plan to phase out gas-powered vehicles and altered how tax cuts are scored in the federal budget, further weakening the filibuster’s power. According to The New York Times, these piecemeal changes, all passed on party-line votes, have chipped away at the filibuster’s historic role as a tool to protect minority party rights and encourage bipartisan consensus.
Yet, Thune has maintained that he is upholding Senate traditions where it matters most. “One of my priorities as leader will be to ensure that the Senate stays the Senate,” he said in January, pledging to preserve the legislative filibuster for major bills. To date, the 60-vote threshold for advancing significant legislation remains intact, a point Thune and his allies have emphasized as evidence of their commitment to institutional norms. “I don’t think it weakens the filibuster at all,” Senator Susan Collins of Maine told The New York Times. “I think it’s an unfortunate situation that we are in. But not a single nominee of the Trump administration has been confirmed by voice vote.”
Still, congressional experts warn that each incremental change makes the next one easier, pushing the Senate further down a “slippery slope.” Richard A. Arenberg, a longtime Senate aide and author, observed, “Each time you cross a line, you know, it becomes a little bit easier to cross the next one.” The so-called “nuclear option”—once considered an extreme measure—has now been deployed multiple times in recent years by both parties, each citing the intransigence of the other as justification.
Thune’s Republican colleagues, including those with reputations as institutionalists, have largely backed the changes, arguing that Democrats’ refusal to cooperate left them with no choice. All 53 Senate Republicans voted in lockstep to support the procedural overhaul. Thune, for his part, has not hesitated to characterize Democratic opposition in stark terms. “That’s absolutely accurate, the Senate Democrats, because of their Trump Derangement Syndrome, are putting America’s national security interests at risk all around the world,” he told Breitbart News. He went on to describe Democratic behavior as “almost pathological,” insisting that the blockade had to end for the sake of effective governance and national security.
Democrats, meanwhile, have maintained that their resistance is rooted in concerns over the qualifications of many Trump nominees, not blind opposition. Schumer has repeatedly argued that the Senate’s role is to scrutinize and vet presidential appointments, a function undermined by the new rules. He pointed out that the rapid confirmation of large blocs of nominees could allow unqualified individuals to slip through without sufficient examination.
The stakes of these changes are not merely procedural. With a government funding deadline looming on September 30, the legislative filibuster remains a potent tool for the minority party, and bipartisan negotiation will still be necessary for major bills. Yet, the ability of the minority to influence the executive branch through the confirmation process has been significantly curtailed.
Looking ahead, Thune and Senate Republicans plan to move swiftly through the backlog of more than 100 additional nominees, using their new procedural advantage. “It’s time for the Senate to clear the nominations backlog and clear it quickly. And so we will,” Barrasso said. The coming weeks will test whether the new rules lead to more efficient governance or deepen partisan divisions in an already polarized chamber.
As the dust settles, questions remain about the long-term consequences of this historic shift. The Senate’s traditions have always evolved in response to the pressures of the moment, but each change leaves its mark. For now, the chamber moves forward, its rules—and its relationships—forever altered.
