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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune's remarks below (as delivered):

"Well, Mr. President, last night we found out the answer to the question of how serious Democrats are about funding the government.

"And the answer is, not at all.

"Mr. President, for years the Democrat leader talked about the importance of passing clean continuing resolutions.

"In fact, we did 13 of them while the Democrats had the majority the past four years with a Democrat in the White House.

"Well, Democrats' CR proposal this time is the exact opposite.

"It's not clean - it's filthy.

"It's packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats' leftist base.

"Funding health care for able-bodied adults who refuse to work.

"Ensuring that noncitizens go back on the Medicaid rolls.

"Removing Republican-passed measures to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid and free up resources for the people who need Medicaid the most.

"And even while Democrats are ensuring that noncitizens and able-bodied adults who refuse to work are getting government-funded health care, they're attempting to eliminate a historic investment in home- and community-based services for Americans with disabilities.

"Where exactly do their priorities lie?

"They're also trying to axe Republicans' transformational, once-in-a-generation investment in rural health care, designed to improve the way that we deliver care to those who need it.

"Mr. President, Republicans have advanced a clean, nonpartisan CR to keep the government funded while we continue bipartisan work on regular annual appropriations funding bills.

"Democrats?

"Well, Democrats are threatening to shut down the government if Republicans don't agree to last night's laundry list of partisan demands.

"And I think, Mr. President, that tells you all that you need to know.

"I expect the House to advance a clean CR tomorrow.

"And I hope - I really hope - that Democrats will come to their senses and join us in passing it.

"The ball is in their court.

"Mr. President, later today the Senate will vote on a slate of 48 lower-level nominees to the executive branch of our government - the first package of nominees we'll consider this year.

"Now normally, confirming a slate of noncontroversial, lower-level nominees like the ones in this package wouldn't merit a lot of discussion on the floor of the Senate.

"They would normally be confirmed in a few moments by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"In fact, previous presidents have had most of their nominees confirmed this way.

"George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in his first term each had 98 percent of their civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"George W. Bush and Barack Obama had 90 percent in their first terms in office.

"Then came President Trump's first term: Democrats injected a healthy dose of partisanship into the process and all of a sudden positions that used to go by voice vote or unanimous consent were now requiring roll call votes.

"Still, both President Biden and President Trump in his first term had more than half of their nominees confirmed by voice or unanimous consent.

"And then there's this year.

"This year, Democrats fully broke the confirmation process here in the Senate.

"For almost eight months now, Democrats have dragged out the confirmation of every one of President Trump's nominees.

"He's the first president on record not to have a single civilian nominee confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"Not one.

"Now, Democrats have said that they're doing this because these are 'historically bad' nominees.

"Historically bad?

"Many of the president's nominees are getting Democrat support when they come out of the relevant committee of jurisdiction.

"Democrats are even voting to confirm them.

"But despite this Democrats have still slowed down the process literally to a halt.

"It's delay for delay's sake.

"I suppose so they look like they're fighting.

"Well, Mr. President, last week Republicans put a stop to this and restored the Senate's longstanding practice of confirming nominees expeditiously in batches, the way it was always done prior.

"And that's what we're going to be doing here today.

"This slate of nominees - as I said - consists of noncontroversial, lower-level positions in the executive branch.

"Many of these positions have been filled by unanimous consent or voice vote in each of the last three incoming administrations.

"Almost all of them have been filled that way at least once since President Obama.

"So the positions themselves aren't controversial.

"Well, interestingly enough, Mr. President, neither are the nominees.

"Every one of these 48 nominees was reported out of committee with bipartisan support.

"Every single one.

"A significant number of them were supported by a majority of Democrats on their respective committees.

"Under any other president, these would be exactly the type of nominees that we would confirm in a batch by unanimous consent or voice vote.

"Democrats' obstruction is not about the quality of the nominees.

"Let's just put that to rest, pure and simple.

"It's about Democrats' utter inability to accept the fact that the American people elected President Trump.

"Now, Mr. President, President Trump came into office with a mandate.

"And like every president before him, he needs his team in place to enact his agenda.

"But Democrats' obstruction would have denied him that team.

"It would have denied the American people the change that they voted for last November.

"And it would have prevented the Senate from doing important work.

"Mr. President, so far this year, we have cast more than 500 votes here in this chamber.

"That's more than any Senate in recent history at this point in a Congress.

"But just to finish the nominees in the pipeline today would require another 600 votes if we considered them all individually - which is what Democrats have been forcing us to do since this president took office.

"Six hundred more votes, Mr. President.

"We've cast more than 500 up until now.

"We would have to cast another 600 in the three and a half months before the end of the year just to get through the current pipeline.

"That doesn't even consider the hundreds of additional nominees who will be added to that pipeline in the coming weeks and months.

"Mr. President, if the Senate had continued … at the pace that we'd been proceeding at through the month of July, there would still have been hundreds of empty desks in the executive branch on President Trump's last day in office - in 2029.

"Think about that.

"Republicans have fixed a broken process and restored the Senate precedent that applied to previous presidents - and that is allowing … a majority of a president's nominees to be confirmed expeditiously.

"Mr. President, I've talked a lot about allowing a president to assemble his team.

"But of course restoring Senate precedent isn't just about ensuring that a president can get his team in place.

"It's also about making sure that the Senate is able to spend sufficient time on legislative work.

"First and foremost, the Senate is a legislative body.

"And Democrats' historic obstruction has made it substantially more difficult for the Senate to spend adequate time on legislation.

"And by restoring Senate precedent on confirmations, we have helped ensure that the Senate is able to fulfill all of its responsibilities.

"Mr. President, today is the first slate of nominees.

"There will be more to come.

"And we'll ensure that President Trump's administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors - and that this government can deliver for the American people."

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