A controversial tactic of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his fellow Democrats is behind President Donald Trump’s call for members of the Senate to forego their traditional August recess and stay on the job to confirm dozens of pending presidential nominees.

The Democrats’ tactic is opposing unanimous consent on every Trump nominee that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) brings to the floor. Traditionally, non-controversial presidential nominations are waved through with a unanimous consent motion, but that isn’t happening in the 119th Congress. Democrats are using every parliamentary tactic possible to delay the confirmations, including withholding their consent whenever a unanimous motion is offered.

That stops the nomination in its tracks and throws multiple wrenches into the legislative process.

Despite the Democrats stalling, Thune claims the Republican Senate majority is confirming presidential nominations and doing other legislative work at a near-record pace. Through July 24, 107 Trump nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, including 11 last week.

But maintaining that pace comes at a price. Because Democrats are forcing debate and roll-call votes on all nominees — rather than just on those on which there are genuine issues — the legislative process is being hampered just when the government could face another shutdown crisis when Congress returns in September after the Labor Day holiday.

Senate Republicans are not happy about the situation.

“If they set this as a new precedent, whenever they get the White House again and have the Senate again, it’s going to get really ugly. … It’s hard to justify and defend a practice that they’re employing today that literally is unprecedented in history,” Thune said in a July 24 statement.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) was even more emphatic, telling the Senate in a floor speech the same day that getting those 107 Trump nominees confirmed “took relentless procedural battles to accomplish this. It included full days and long nights. Why? Because Democrats are waging a coordinated campaign of obstruction.”

The Wyoming Republican continued, accusing Senate Democrats of turning the upper chamber’s advice and consent role in presidential nominations “into automatic opposition. It doesn’t just delay President Trump. It damages the country,” Barrasso insisted. “Democrats have filibustered all but one of President Trump’s nominees, and that was the very first nominee — now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was confirmed on day one of this administration. Since then, it has been a wall of obstruction. Democrats filibustered positions requiring confirmation that have never before had a roll call vote in the United States Senate.”

Data compiled by the Partnership for Public Service (PPS) and provided to The Washington Stand demonstrate that Trump is doing much better on getting confirmed nominations in the first six months of his second term in the Oval Office than he did during the same period of his first term.

Through July 21 (note that Thune’s figures are through July 24), PPS found Trump had 94 confirmations in 2025, compared with just 50 at the same point in 2017. Trump’s 94 confirmations this year equal the total for his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, through July 21 of 2021.

Trump has set a record pace for total nominations thus far in his second term with 386, compared to just 203 in his first term. By comparison, Biden had 327, Barack Obama 357, and George W. Bush 319. But Bush and Obama gained Senate confirmations at more than double the pace of Trump, showing 201 and 199, respectively, by July 21 of their first terms.

The PPS data includes “all civilian positions, including ambassadors but excluding federal judges, U.S. attorneys, and U.S. marshals. Data is through July 21 of the president’s first year. Nominations that were returned and resubmitted soon after are combined, as are simultaneous nominations to related positions.”

Thune also released data showing the Senate is piling up roll-call votes at a near-record pace. Through July 24, the Senate has taken 437 roll-call votes, the fourth highest ever. The four previous Senates with higher roll-call vote totals required a full session. The highest number of roll-call votes was the 613 recorded by the Senate in the 95th Congress. Second highest was 528 roll-call votes in the Senate during the 21st Congress.

The Washington Stand has asked a spokesman for Schumer if he plans to continue withholding unanimous consent for all Trump nominees, even though Senate Republicans are still able to move substantial numbers of them to Senate confirmation votes. No response was received as of publication time for this news story.