Conservative Action Project

October 10, 2017
Washington, DC
Signatures updated: 10/19/17

As President Trump approaches the end of his first year in office, his ability to implement his agenda across the executive branch has been hindered by the Senate’s failure to confirm his nominations.

Under unified government, President Trump has still faced a slower pace of confirmations than that of Presidents Bush or Obama, both of whom had nearly half of their nominees confirmed by this time in their respective terms. Specifically, President Bush had 358 of his 610 nominations cleared. President Obama had 341 out of 505 nominations confirmed. Currently, President Trump has only had 161 confirmations of the 398 individuals nominated.

The slow pace of Senate confirmations is exacerbated by the Senate’s continued insistence on working no more than 2 ½ days a week – arriving on Monday evening for a handful of votes, and departing, on average, by 2:30 p.m. each Thursday afternoon.

Previous Senates worked harder. The Reid Senate of 2009 averaged a departure time of 6:15 p.m. every Thursday, and oftentimes stayed as late as 11:30 p.m. to finish their work. In fact, the Reid Senate of 2009-2010 spent nearly 2,500 hours in session, compared to the McConnell Senate of 2015-2016, which spent just 1,855 hours in session.

Also troubling is the Republican insistence that Democrats are “obstructing” votes on these nominations, as claimed in a recent press release from the Senate Majority Leader’s office. It is unclear what obstruction is taking place. Democrats no longer have the ability to filibuster any nominees, judicial or executive. Any simple objections they do make – such as running all post-cloture time – are simply process objections that can be easily overcome.

Moreover, if Democrats are going to insist on all post-cloture time to be run, Majority Leader McConnell can easily make this painful for them by forcing continuous session overnight and through the weekend. If the Senate stayed in session continuously for a week (including the weekend), they could confirm up to five nominees every week even if Democrats made them run the full post-cloture time on each nomination.

Democrats may be able to delay consideration of nominees for a short time, but they ultimately can no longer obstruct. In the absence of the filibuster, the fate of every nominee rests solely with Majority Leader McConnell and the will of the GOP conference to do the necessary work.

Personnel is policy. In delaying the confirmation of President Trump’s appointees, the Senate is directly limiting the President’s effectiveness. This is not only true because positions remain vacant and work is not being accomplished, but because without the direction of Trump’s political appointees, career officials are left unsupervised. As has been documented in many instances, career officials that disagree with the President have taken measures to actively thwart his priorities.

Furthermore, continued delay results in ongoing unanswered partisan attacks designed to tarnish the personal and professional reputations of the president’s nominees. Both Russell Vought, nominated to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Amy Coney Barrett, nominated to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, have been subject to scurrilous attacks by Democratic senators who have attempted to link the faith of Vought and Barrett to their qualification for office. Not only is this an unconstitutional religious test, but such statements subject both Vought and Barrett to unwarranted and offensive criticism to which they cannot give a robust response. Other nominees are being unnecessarily delayed because Republican Senators failed to appear at committee meetings where the nominations were to be voted upon, forcing cancellation of the committee’s action on the nomination.

The Republican Senate should prioritize these nominations and others like them. Vought and Barrett are both immensely qualified for the positions to which they’ve been nominated, and the GOP should confirm them swiftly, not only because of their excellent credentials, but also as a definitive answer to the Democrats who are attempting to place a religious test on an appointed office. Deputy Labor Secretary-nominee Patrick Pizzella is highly qualified and yet the GOP has failed to move his nomination. These are just a few of the stories of President Trump’s nominations languishing in the Senate.

The Senate plays a critical Constitutional role in helping the President shape and implement his priorities by passing legislation, but also by confirming the President’s nominations. We urge the Senate to take its role seriously and act with haste to confirm the individuals that President Trump has selected to assist him in carrying out his mandate.

To that end, the Conservative Movement calls on the Senate leadership to IMMEDIATELY schedule committee and floor action every Thursday and Friday for the foreseeable future to act on President Trump’s nominees for executive and judicial office and to begin working a full week, EVERY week, until all nominations have been acted upon.

The United States Senate behaves as though there are no time limits and no urgency to these matters. They are wrong and we cannot overstate the frustration and growing concern with the Republican Senate leadership for its failure during this entire year to do its work, process the nominations and address the issues that the American people have elected and pay them to handle.

We urge the Senate to get to work – now.

The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable Becky Norton Dunlop
Chairman, Conservative Action Project
Former White House Advisor, President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council
President, Council for National Policy
William L. Walton
Chairman
CNP Action, Inc.
Adam Brandon
President
FreedomWorks
The Honorable Bob McEwen
U.S. House of Representatives
Former Member, Ohio
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Chairman
Constitutional Congress, Inc.
Herman Pirchner, Jr.
Founding President
American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC)
The Honorable Jim DeMint
U.S. Senate
Former Member, South Carolina
Tom McClusky
President
March for Life Action
Ed Corrigan
Former Executive Director
Senate Steering Committee
Rachel Bovard
Former Policy Director
Senate Steering Committee
Cleta Mitchell, Esq. David Bozell
President
ForAmerica
Alfred S. Regnery
Chairman
Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund
Diana Banister
President and Partner
Shirley & Banister Public Affairs
Colin A. Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring
The Honorable T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Chief Assistant to President Reagan
for Domestic Affairs
The Honorable David McIntosh
Former Member, Indiana
U.S. House of Representatives
L. Brent Bozell, III
Founder and President
Media Research Center
The Honorable Donald Devine
Former Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under President Ronald Reagan
The Honorable James C. Miller III
Budget Director for President Reagan, 1985-1988, President Reagan’s OMB
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin
US Army (Ret.)
Kingdom Warriors Ministry
Belden Bell
Cochair Heritage Legacy Society
The Heritage Foundation
Elaine Donnelly
President
Center for Military Readiness
Kenneth F. Boehm
Chairman
National Legal and Policy Center
James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman
60 Plus Association
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Jenny Beth Martin
President & Co-Founder
Tea Party Patriots
Penny Young Nance
CEO and President, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee
David N. Bossie
President
Citizens United
Anthony Saliba
CEO
Saliba Venture Management LLC
Ginni Thomas
President
Liberty Consulting
Rebecca Hagelin
Secretary, Council for National Policy
Board of Directors, FamilyTalk
Brad Dacus, Esq.
President
Pacific Justice Institute
L. Martin Nussbaum
Attorney
The Honorable Jason Rapert
Senator
Arkansas Senate
Terrence Scanlon
Retired CEO/President
Capital Research Center
Joseph A. Morris
Morris & De La Rosa
William Mills
President
MPW Properties
Andrea S. Lafferty
President
Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)
Kelly Shackelford
President/CEO/Chief Counsel
First Liberty Institute
Frank J. Gaffney
President
Center for Security Policy
Floyd Brown
Chairman
Western Center for Journalism
Mica Mosbacher
Advisor
Trump 2020 Board
Ron Robinson
President
Young America’s Foundation
Heather R. Higgins
President and CEO
Independent Women’s Voice
Carrie L. Lukas
President
Independent Women’s Forum
Kathleen A. Patten
President & CEO
American Target Advertising, Inc.
Rod D. Martin
Founder & CEO
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Sherri R. Martin
Executive Vice President
The Martin Organization, Inc.
Haley E. Martin
President
The Martin Foundation
Evelio Silvera
Campaign for the American Future
Nicholas Stehle
Campaign for the American Future
Shawn A. Mitchell
National Chaplain
National Federation of Republican Assemblies
Jerry Melvin
President
Florida Republican Assembly
Rick Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government
Lewis K. Uhler
President
National Tax Limitation Committee
Judson Phillips
Founder
Tea Party Nation
Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
Washington Bureau Chief
Infowars.com
Kevin Freeman
Founder
NSIC Institute
Richard A. Viguerie
Chairman
ConservativeHQ
Austin Ruse
President
C-Fam
Kay R. Daly
President
Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
Michael J. Bowen
CEO
Coalition For a Strong America
Mark Fitzgibbons
President of Corporate Affairs
American Target Advertising, Inc.
Tim Macy
Chairman
Gun Owners of America
Sandy Rios
Director of Governmental Affairs
American Family Association
Lee Beaman
CEO
Beaman Automotive Group
Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D.
Board Chair
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Tim LeFever
Chairman
Capitol Resource Institute
Donna Hearne
CEO
Constitutional Coalition
Mike Spence
Founding President
Conservative Republicans of California
Phillip Leo Jauregui
President
Judicial Action Group
Nancy Schulze
Founder, Republican Congressional Wives Speakers & Women for Trump Bus
Susan A. Carleson
Chairman/CEO
American Civil Rights Union
Anne Schlafly Cori
Chairman
Eagle Forum
Ralph A. Rebandt, II
Senior Pastor, Chaplain Oakland Hills Community Church/Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police
J. Christian Adams
President
Public Interest Legal Foundation
John McCardell
President
America’s Liberty Committee
Michael R. Long
State Chairman
NYS Conservative Party
Bob Carlstrom
President
The Carlstrom Group, LLC
Dan Weber
Founder and President
Association of Mature American Citizens
Sara M. Olson
Senior Vice President
Concerned Women for America
Samuel B. Casey
Managing Director & General Counsel
Jubilee Campaign
Gerrye Johnston
Founder/CEO
Women for Democracy in America, Inc.
Peter Bohlinger
Managing Member
Pacific Apartment Homes, LLC
Willes K. Lee
President, National Federation of
Republican Assemblies
William W. Pascoe, III
Managing Partner
Antietam Communications
Roxanne Phillips
Member, Executive Committee
Council for National Policy
Mario Navarro da Costa
Director, Washington Bureau
Tradition, Family, Property
Richard Wright
Owner
R & S LLC
Penny Pullen
President
Life Advocacy Resource Project
Eunie Smith
President
Eagle Forum
Nick Roos
President
Roos Wellness LLC
Joan Lindsey
President
Lindsey Communications
Christopher Malagisi
Editor in Chief
Conservative Book Club
Robert K. Fischer
Meeting Coordinator
Conservatives of Faith
Lisa Calvert
Christian Speaker and Bible Teacher
Rabon-Calvert Interests
Andresen Blom
Executive Director
Grassroot Hawaii Action
John F. Tate
President
America’s Liberty PAC
Dean Nelson
Chairman
Frederick Douglass Foundation
David Martin
Health Care Entrepreneur
Cleveland, Ohio
Randy Page
Chief of Staff
Bob Jones University
Jack Park
Conservative Activist and Donor
Quin Hillyer
Veteran Conservative Columnist
Becky Gerritson
President
Wetumpka TEA Party (AL)
Catharine Trauernicht
Citizen Activist
Ralph Schmidt
Director
God’s Embrace Ministries
Tim Daughtry
Author
Daughtry & Company
Ed Martin
President
Phyllis Schlafly Eagles
The Honorable Gary L. Bauer
President
American Values
Cathi Herrod
President
Center for Arizona Policy
Caren Cowan
Executive Director
New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association
Peter J. Thomas
Chairman
The Conservative Caucus
C. Preston Noell III
President
Traditional, Family, Property, Inc.
Caroline Lewis
Owner
Percipio Communications
Charlie Gerow
CEO
Quantum Communications
Paavo Ensio
Chairman
Minerals Group
The Honorable George K. Rasley, Jr.
Managing Editor
ConservativeHQ.com
Martha Boneta
Executive Vice President
Citizens for the Republic
Steve Berger
Pastor
Grace Chapel
The Honorable Morton C. Blackwell
Chairman
The Weyrich Lunch
Gene Mills
President
Louisiana Family Forum
Travis Korson
Senior Fellow
Frontiers of Freedom
Keet Lewis
Co-Founder
Lewis Group Intl.
Philip Haney
CEO
Venatus Group, Inc.
Mat Staver, Esq.
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper
President Reagan’s Chief Defense and Space Negotiator and Director of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative
John R. Dodd
President
Jesse Helms Center
Ann Drexel
Board of Governors
Council for National Policy
Jennifer Schubert-Akin
Chairman and CEO
Steamboat Institute
Virginia Armstrong
National Chairman
Eagle Forum’s Court Watch
Jenny Beth Martin
Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund
Felix Bronstein
Attorney

All organizations listed for IDENTIFICATION purposes only.

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