GOP goes 'nuclear' to speed Trump nominees through Senate

Senate Republicans triggered the nuclear option Wednesday, changing the interpretation of the chamber’s rules to speed up the time it takes to confirm presidential appointees and creating a glide path for President Trump to stack the lower federal courts with conservative judges.

The 51-48 vote means that once a filibuster has been surmounted, senators can only demand up to two hours of additional debate — not the 30 hours allowed before the change.

Including the time for actually casting votes, Republicans could now confirm more than 10 lower-level Executive Branch nominees in the time it would have taken to approve just one

Another vote is expected later Wednesday to make the same change to two hours of debate after a filibuster has been surmounted on district court nominees.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cast the vote as a chance to return the Senate to the practices of the last century, when senators showed restraint and filibusters of presidential nominees were exceedingly rare.