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Senate Republicans are close to clearing the backlog of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
The GOP confirmed 49 of Trump’s picks on Monday, a move that would include 60% of his nominees. This is the fourth time Republicans have confirmed a number of party nominees since changing Senate rules last year.
The latest group included 20 different positions, including a dozen US attorneys, several US marshals, ambassadors and members of various agencies, including the Departments of the Army, Transportation, Energy, and others.
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President Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Air Force One on May 15, 2026, returning from Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Mark Schifelbein/AP)
Also included in this group is Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management and former member of Congress, Stevan Pearce.
Senate Democrats for much of the past year have blocked most nominees from being confirmed. Normally, civilian nominees were often confirmed without a full vote on the Senate floor.
That ban, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., in an effort to prevent Trump from forming a federal government to suit his agenda, has prompted Republicans to take up nuclear weapons and change Senate rules.
That measure, the fourth time lawmakers have resorted to nuclear voting in the Senate, lowered the threshold for a vote to just a simple majority over the normal 60-vote threshold needed to defeat a filibuster.
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And it proved a successful move for Republicans. Last year, they endorsed more than 400 Trump picks.
That surpassed his first total in the first year, when he had only 323 confirmed hits. And it also beat former President Joe Biden, who at the same time had 365 nominees confirmed.
Meanwhile, Republicans are also busy putting together work on another part of Trump’s agenda – funding immigration enforcement over the next three and a half years.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference after the Democratic Alliance policy luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Republicans are moving ahead with the party’s budget reconciliation process in their effort to spend $72 billion on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol on June 1.
Lawmakers have until the end of the week to finalize the plan, as they are scheduled to take another break next week for the Memorial Day holiday.
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But the package hit other snags with Senate rule referees, and other items, including $1 billion in security upgrades for Trump’s territory and funding for the Secret Service were stripped.
