Senate Republicans advance 97 Trump nominees in key procedural vote
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Senate Republicans cleared the first procedural hurdle Wednesday to confirm nearly 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
The move brings with it a later vote on Trump’s ’97 pick and marks the third time Senate Republicans have put forward a bloc of the president’s nominees since changing confirmation rules in September.
The final vote to approve the latest tranche of elections is expected next week. When Republicans approve this latest package, they will have certified more than 400 of Trump’s picks in the first year of his second term.
DEM ATTEMPT TO BLOCK TRUMP STEPS FIRED BACK, REPUBLICANS GATHERED NEAR 100 FOR APPROVAL
President Donald Trump speaks with the New York Yankees in the clubhouse before the game between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 11, 2025 in New York, New York. (New York Yankees/Getty Images)
That benchmark would place him well ahead of former President Joe Biden, who had 350 nominees confirmed at the same point in his presidency.
The candidates include former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-R.Y.), who will serve as inspector general of the Labor Department, and James Murphy and Scott Mayer, two picks for the National Labor Relations Board, as well as several others from nearly every federal agency.
Senate APPROVES DOZENS OF TRUMP NOMINATES in First Test of New Nuclear Rules
Former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R.N.Y.) is one of President Donald Trump’s nearly 100 picks about to be confirmed in the Senate. (Fox News Digital/D’Esposito Office)
The inclusion of Murphy and Mayer in the package comes after Trump fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox; The move was found to be legal by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
This is also the second attempt by Senate Republicans to move this package after Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., objected last week in an attempt to derail the process.
Senate Republicans have gone nuclear and changed the rules surrounding the confirmation process in an effort to break Senate Democrats’ months-long blockade of Trump’s nominees, limiting scope only to sub-Cabinet positions that can be advanced with a simple 50-vote majority.
Senate GOP LEADER LOWERS FILIBUSTER THRESHOLD FOR TRUMP CANDIDATES THROUGH NUCLEAR OPTION
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., tried to derail Senate Republicans’ attempt to confirm dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But one of the candidates in the original package, former Fox News contributor Sara Carter, whose legal name is Sara Bailey, was considered a “Level 1” candidate, meaning she would have a Cabinet-level position.
Trump appointed Carter as drug czar to director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in March.
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Carter’s inclusion in the package meant Republicans would have to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold if they wanted to confirm him and 87 other candidates. That outcome was unlikely, given Senate Democrats’ near-universal disapproval of some of Trump’s picks and their accusations that many of them were unqualified to serve in the positions they were elected to fill.
But Senate Republicans seized the opportunity and moved to introduce a new, strengthened package that added nine more candidates.
