John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 461, S. 4472.

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to and the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 526, S. 494.

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, Senator Whitehouse or his designee be authorized to return the Senate to legislative session for the purposes of making a motion to proceed to Calendar No. 532, S.J. Res. 187, during Wednesday's session of the Senate.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 5; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 6500, postcloture, upon conclusion of leader remarks; further, if cloture is invoked on the Schwartz nomination, the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination at 2:15 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session of the Senate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I am pleased to say that the text of the continuing resolution has been released. It is a strong, bipartisan piece of legislation, and I hope it will receive overwhelming support from both parties in the Senate. I am deeply grateful to Appropriations Chair Collins for her work to produce this legislation, in consultation with Members of both parties, and I also want to thank Senator Murray, vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, for her efforts to get this done. I look forward to passing this bill in the next few days.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this week, we will move our fifth block of civilian nominees, which includes 74 well-qualified individuals. By the end of the week, we will have cleared 95 percent of the civilian nominees who are eligible for floor consideration--95 percent. At this same point in President Trump's first term, there were 155 unconfirmed nominees on the calendar. This year, that number is on track to be about 10. It is the best confirmation track record in a quarter century. As I said, we will have confirmed 95 percent of the civilian nominees available for confirmation, meaning that we are doing better at this point than we were during President Obama's first term, President Trump's first term, or President Biden's. It didn't always look like we would be able to achieve this. From the very beginning of his second term, Democrats met President Trump's nominees with a historic level of obstruction. And when I say historic, I do mean historic. Up until extremely recently, President Trump was the only President on record--the only President on record--not to have had any civilian nominees approved by unanimous consent or voice vote. That used to be the standard way of approving these nominations. During President George H. W. Bush's 4 years in office and President Clinton's first 4 years, both Presidents had 98 percent of their civilian nominees--98 percent--confirmed through unanimous consent or voice vote. President George W. Bush and President Obama both had 90 percent. And then we get to President Trump's first administration. Democrats introduced an unprecedented new level of partisanship into the historically bipartisan confirmation process, forcing time-consuming votes on civilian nominees who would once have gone by unanimous consent or by voice vote. But despite this--despite this new level of partisanship--both President Trump in his first term and President Biden had more than half of their nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote. And then we get to President Trump's current administration. As I said, until recently, he had not had one single nominee confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote--zero. So the fact that we are standing here today with a civilian nominations calendar about to be essentially cleared is pretty impressive. But we have been on a mission to ensure that the President has his nominees in place so that he can do the job the American people elected him to do. That included taking action to restore the Senate tradition of en bloc confirmation of largely noncontroversial nominees. And, most of all, it included putting in the work--lots of work in committees, lots of work on the floor, and lots of votes--lots and lots of votes. That has paid off. We have confirmed 52 article III judges, 91 percent of the U.S. attorneys that have made it out of committee this Congress, 23 Cabinet members, and the list goes on. And we are going to continue to ensure that nominees are confirmed in a timely fashion and that the President is able to have his team in place. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 910.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider the en bloc nominations listed in S. Res. 817.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, next week, our top priority will be funding the government until the November election. The American people have faced two--two--recordbreaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months. We need to ensure that they do not face a third. We owe the American people some certainty here. They should not have to be hoping and praying that on September 30, the government will get funded and that government services will continue. I don't think I need to tell anybody in this body that government shutdowns serve no one--not Members of either party and, most of all, not the American people. Shutdowns strain our national security agencies. They threaten military, law enforcement, and civilian pay. They endanger nutrition benefits, farm programs, and a whole lot of other stuff. They are bad for our economy, and they snarl air travel. I could go on. Shutdowns hit our country--they hit the American people--hard, and we owe it to the American people to ensure that they do not face another shutdown this fall. That is why Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Collins has been hard at work drafting a clean, bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government through the November elections. I appreciate everything she has done to make this happen--engaging with Members of both parties and working through the necessary anomalies from the Office of Management and Budget--and I intend to bring the CR to the floor for a vote next week. Again, I would emphasize that the appropriators are working in good faith to produce a clean, bipartisan product that is free of poison pills, and I hope that will ensure a robust bipartisan vote next week so that the American people don't have to spend the next 2 months wondering if the Senate is going to do its job, because that is what this is--our job. Funding the government is our most basic responsibility as Members of Congress, and we owe it to the American people to get that job done and done now. I urge all of my colleagues to support the clean, bipartisan continuing resolution and get our government funded. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 878 through 880, Calendar Nos. 882 through 892, Calendar Nos. 894 through 898, Calendar No. 881, with the exception of Stephen P. Snelson; and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, with the exception of PN970-2 and PN1151, Omar Vargas; Army, with the exception of PN1015-2, Mark R. Berube and Mandi A. Samples; PN1017-2, Joel A. Arends and Michael D. Thompson; PN1061-2, Theresa M. Long; PN1065-2, Samuel A. Smith; PN1072-2, Philip T. Buckler; PN1104, Austin D. Roberts and John A. Goodwin; PN1105, Justin M. Smith; Navy, with the exception of PN835-2, PN925, PN990-2, Robert J. Moreno and Joshua Q. McCright; PN1029-2, Kelly Cruz; and Space Force; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following resolutions, which are at the desk: S. Res. 821, S. Res. 822, S. Res. 823, S. Res. 824, and S. Res. 825.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following nominations en bloc: All nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Foreign Service; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.