Political Quotes

On the recordJuly 13, 2017
Madam President, it has been nearly 7 months since President Trump took office. He was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol on January 20. Our colleagues across the aisle have had, frankly, more than enough time to come to terms with the election results. Unfortunately, they seem to be channeling their disappointment through the confirmation process by engaging in an unprecedented level of obstruction. We spent all this week when the Senate could do no other business on the executive calendar than to confirm three nominees--three nominees of about 500 that need to be appointed by the President. They are there only because the President would want them there. They come and go as Presidents come and go. Many of them have gone. The problem is that their replacements haven't been there. If there is any doubt as to just how unprecedented this drawn-out confirmation process has been, let's look at how it stacks up against the previous administration. We are only a couple of weeks away from August, and Senate Democrats have only allowed us to confirm 52 of President Trump's 216 nominees. That is 24 percent. By the August recess of President Obama's first term, the Senate had confirmed 313 of his 454 nominations, or 69 percent. So we start out with an incredibly slow start, where previous administrations--both the Bush administration and the Obama administration--by the end of the first week, or often by the end of the first day, had most of their Cabinet confirmed.…
Said by
Roy Blunt
Republican · Missouri

Share & report

More from Roy Blunt

Dec 2, 2021

Mr. President, this is always a very busy time of the year if we are still here, and it has been a long time since the Congress wasn't here in the first of December. There have been years within the last couple of decades where we actually…

govinfo.gov
Feb 2, 2022

The ability to secure your border--to follow my good friend from Ohio, the ability to secure your border is actually one of the fundamental responsibilities of a legitimate government. Even former President Obama, within the last few…

govinfo.gov
May 12, 2022

Madam President, in reserving the right to object, my colleague Senator Paul is well-intended in this recommendation, and I listened to it carefully, as I am sure others did. The Page Program, which has been in effect since 1829, has…

govinfo.gov
Oct 20, 2021

Well, Madam President, in just a few short months this year, we have seen a long list of problems develop in the country. Some of them my good friend the Senator from West Virginia just talked about. They range from inflation and debt to…

govinfo.gov

Other voices in this conversation