BURSTSenate Democrats boycotted a committee vote on Thursday to advance several of President Trump’s ambassador nominees, an act of rebellion against Republican efforts to quickly confirm Trump's picks.
Without Democrats, Republicans must gather all 12 GOP members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to reach a quorum to take up business. Senators don’t always attend every meeting, sometimes voting by proxy. It’s not clear if the panel will reach a quorum on Thursday, with at least one Republican member, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairing another committee hearing.
The boycott on Thursday slow rolled one of Trump’s most controversial nominees, Charles Kushner for ambassador to France. Kushner is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and received a pardon from the president clearing his convictions of tax evasion, witness tampering and other federal charges.
Four other nominees were also held up: ambassador to the Netherlands, Ireland, the Dominican Republic and Chile.
Democrats say they are protesting Republicans, and particularly Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho), caving to pressure from the White House to speed ambassador nominees through the confirmation process.
In an April post on Truth Social, Trump criticized Senate Democrats as slow-walking the confirmation process, a signal for the Republican-controlled Senate to move forward on votes, quickly.
Democrats on the Foreign Relations committee have exercised holds on nearly all of Trump's nominees, an act of protest against the president's shutdown of USAID, severe cuts to foreign assistance, and other measures that they view as unconstitutional and overruling Congress's powers.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has employed a floor procedure, filing cloture, to get around Democrats holds.
It's left few options for Democrats to push back against Republican actions they oppose.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the committee, led the boycott, which served as a shot across the bow to Risch. Traditionally, the two have a remarkably close working relationship, one that is often focused on finding bipartisan consensus or solutions.
"I have always believed it is important that we have Senate-confirmed ambassadors and senior officials in place to represent the United States overseas and advance our national security priorities. To that end, I have worked with Chair Risch to advance nominees on a reasonable timeline,” Shaheen said in a statement.
"But I also believe strongly that this Committee should work in a bipartisan manner. Unfortunately, today the Majority did not agree to the Committee’s long-standing rules and traditions to keep the Minority properly informed. Therefore, Democrats did not participate in today’s proceedings.”
Shaheen added, "Moving forward, it is my hope this Committee can adhere to its long-standing tradition of bipartisanship."
The Hill has reached out to Risch for comment.
A Democratic committee staffer said that there is a positive dynamic between Shaheen and Risch, but that Democrats felt "that heavy-handed White House interference is neither appropriate nor acceptable, and it is interfering with this positive dynamic."
The Senate confirmation process is traditionally slow and cumbersome, owing to a variety of factors including the sheer number of positions for the Senate to review and the required vetting, hearings, committee votes and floor votes.
Trump has had 58 confirmed nominees, a higher number of confirmed appointments compared to President Biden at the same point in his term, and faster than Trump’s first term, according to the Political Appointee Tracker by the Partner for Public Service and the Washington Post.